God Near and Far Off.
I. God is not far from the wicked in a local sense.The most wicked man upon the face of the earth lives and moves and has his being by reason of his relation to that God who he practically ignores. The power of life that he possesses is not self-originated, and although we do not know exactly how he lives in God, we know that in this sense he is near to Him, for“He is not far from every one of us”(Acts xvii. 27). But—
II. God is far from the wicked in a moral sense.There is often a wide moral distance between those who are locally near each other. The father who lives and toils for his children, and eats with them at the same table may be as far from them morally as he is near to them locally. Judas lived for three years with the Son of God—often shared the same hospitality and partook of the same meal. There was a local nearness to Christ but a wide moral gulf between the Master and the professed disciple. The moral distance between God and the wicked is the subject of the first clause of this verse. Notice—1.The cause of this distance.The ungodly man cherishes purposes and desires which are directly opposed to the will and purpose of God. God has one view of life and the ungodly man has another. That which God esteems of the highest moment is lightly esteemed by a wicked man. This being so, there can be no sympathy between the creature and his Creator—a great gulf is fixed between them. 2.The wicked man is to blame for remaining at this distance from God.God invites him to bridge the chasm.“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him: and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon”(Isa. lv. 7). He rolls upon him the responsibility of the separation.“Say untothem, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live”(Ezek. xxxiii. 11). 3.This distance, if not annihilated, will increase with time and continue through eternity.Sinful habits and desires, if yielded to, grow harder to overcome—a man never stands still in the way of transgression. And no local change from one world to another can have any effect upon the moral distance. It is not to be bridged by change of place but by change of character. Either the man must turn to God or be ever getting farther from Him. But—
III. There is a sympathy between God and the righteous man which keeps the Divine ear open to his prayer.As we have before noticed, the foundation of sympathy is likeness of character, and those who have sympathy with each other have open ears for the reception of each other’s thoughts and desires. The godly man has an open ear for the commands and promises of God, and God, in return, “heareth the prayer of the righteous.” There is a like-mindedness between the righteous God and a righteous man—a oneness of desire and purpose—that makes the words of each acceptable to the other. 1.God’s ear is the first that is open to the prayer of the righteous.The sentinel watching on the height for the first streaks of dawning day has a view of the objects around him before those in the valley are able to perceive them. They are unable to see what he sees, because they are still shut in by the darkness. But if this sentinel had power to pierce the darkness of night, he would not even have to wait for day in order to discern all that lies around him. God is such a sentinel over the children of men. Others are dependent upon the light that comes from words before they discern the desires of others, but God can see into the darkest corner of the human soul—can discern the unuttered desire of the heart long before it shapes itself into words. God’s ear is open to hear before the man’s mouth is open to pray. He“understandeth his thought afar off,”knows it before it has even shaped itself into a petition, or even into a desire in the man’s own heart, and consequently long before it is known to any other creature. 2.No power outside the righteous man can come between his prayer and God’s ear.When we present a prayer or express a desire to any human benefactor, it is possible that some opposing influence may prevent our suit from being favourably received. A third person may come between, and by misrepresentation or by other means, may hinder our request from receiving impartial consideration. But God’sfirst-handknowledge of all His children makes it a blessed certainty that all their requests will enter His ear and receive impartial treatment at His hands. (For other thoughts on this subject see Homiletics onverse 8, page 407.)
outlines and suggestive comments.
We may perhaps trace a reference to this maxim, a proof how deeply it has taken root in men’s hearts, in the reasoning of the blind man in John ix. 31.—Plumptre.
The Lord is far from the wicked.He was so far from the proud Pharisee who yet got as near God as he could, pressing up to the highest part of the temple. The poor Publican, not daring to do so, stood aloof, yet was God far from the Pharisee, near to the Publican. “Behold a great miracle,” saith Augustine. “God is on high, thou liftest up thyself and He flees from thee; thou bowest thyself downward and He descends to thee. Low things He respects, that He may raise them; proud things He knoweth afar off, that He may depress them.”But He heareth the prayer of the righteous.Yea, He can feel breath when no voice can be heard for faintness (Lam. iii. 56). When the flesh makes such a din that it is hard to hear the Spirit’s sighs, He knows the meaning of the Spirit(Rom. viii. 26, 27), and can pick English out of our broken requests; yea, He hears our “afflictions” (Gen. xvi. 11), our “tears” (Psa. xxxix. 12), our “chatterings” (Isa. xxxviii. 14), though we cry to Him by implication only, as “the young ravens” do (Psa. cxlvii. 9).—Trapp.
The second clause of this verse becomes exegetical of the first. God is not far from anybody (Psa. cxxxix. 8). But He is far from many people’s“prayer.”—Miller.
Faith is the soul, and repentance is the life of prayer; and a prayer without them hath neither life nor soul. If we believe not, we are yet in our sins; if we repent not, our sins are yet in us. . . . But first “will I wash my hands in innocency, and then will I compass thine altar” (Psa. xxvi. 6). “Then shall my prayer be set before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice” (Psa. cxli. 2). When, with the sword of severe and impartial repentance, we have cut the throat of our sins and done execution upon our lusts, then let us solicit heaven with our prayers; then pray, and speed; then come, and welcome. Then the couriers about the King in heaven shall make room for prayers. Then the Prince Himself shall take our prayer into His own hand, and with a gracious mediation present it to the Father. Then is that court of audience ready to receive our ambassadors, which be our prayers and our tears. Then St. John sees twelve gates in heaven, all open, and all day open, to entertain such suitors.—Adams.
Learn to distinguish betwixt God’s hearing and His answering the saint’s prayer. Every faithful prayer is heart and makes an acceptable report in God’s ear as soon as it is shot; but God doth not always thus speedily answer it. The father, at the reading of his son’s letter (which comes haply upon some begging errand) likes the motion, his heart closes with it, and a grant is there passed; but he takes his own time to send his dispatch and let his son know this. Princes have their books of remembrance, wherein they write the names of their favourites whom they intend to prefer, haply some years before their gracious purpose opens itself to them. Mordecai’s name stood some while in Ahasuerus’ book before his honour was conferred. Thus God records the names of His saints and their prayers. “The Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him, of them that feared the Lord and thought upon His name.” But they hear not of God in His providential answer, haply a long time after. . . . There comes oft a long and sharp winter between the sowing time of prayer, and the reaping. He hears us indeed as soon as we pray, but we oft do not hear of Him so soon. Prayers are not long on their journey to heaven, but long a-coming thence in a full answer. Christ hath not at this day a full answer to some of the prayers He put up on earth; therefore He is said to expect till His enemies be made His footstool.—Gurnall.
When the season has been cold and backward, when rains fell and prices rose, and farmers desponded and the poor despaired, I have heard old people, whose hopes, resting upon God’s promise, did not rise and fall with the barometer, nor shifting winds, say, We shall have harvest after all; and this you may safely say of the labours and fruits of prayer. The answer may be long in coming—years may elapse before the bread we have cast upon the waters comes back; but if the vision tarry, wait for it! Why not? We know that some seeds spring as soon almost as they are committed to the ground; but others lie buried for months, nor, in some cases, is it till years elapse that they germinate and rise, to teach us that what is dormant is not dead. Such it may be with our prayers. Ere that immortal seed has sprung the hand that planted it may be mouldering in the dust—the seal of death on the lips that prayed. But though you are not spared to reap the harvest, our prayers are not lost. They bide their time, God’s “settime.” For in one form or another, in this world or in the next, who sows in tears shall reap in joy. The God who puts his people’s tears into His bottle will certainly never forget their prayers.—Guthrie.
main homiletics of verse30.
Cheerfulness and Good Tidings.
Two views are taken of the meaning of the first clause of this verse. Some understand it to mean that the objective light that plays upon the eyes of the body rejoices the heart of the man who is under its influence; and others understand by “the light of the eyes” that “cheerfulness of countenance” spoken of in verse 13, which has such an inspiring effect upon those who behold it. We suggest a line of thought upon both views.
The light of the material sun rejoices the heart.1.Because of its healthful influence upon the bodily frame.It is well known that sunlight is favourable to bodily health—that a dwelling into which it does not freely enter has a most depressing influence upon its inhabitants, because it deprives them of natural bodily health and vigour. Other things being equal, health of body adds much to cheerfulness of spirit, to gladness of heart. Everyone can testify from personal experience how a low state of bodily health depresses the spirit, and how returning health after sickness revives and gladdens it. Therefore, in this sense the “light of the eyes rejoices the heart.” 2.Because of its beautifying influence upon all that the eyes behold.If we go from the light and brightness of noonday into a dark cave or dungeon where the sun’s rays never penetrate, we find none of that beauty of colour or contrasts of light and shade, which afford us such exquisite enjoyment in the landscape outside. When we come again into the light of day we realise that “light is sweet, and that it is a pleasant thing to behold the sun” (Eccles. xi. 7), for to its blessed influence we owe all the joy that fills our hearts when we look abroad upon the beauties of the natural world. 3.It ought to rejoice the heart of man on account of its symbolic suggestions.God intends the light of nature to be a symbol to the children of men of blessed realities which can be appreciated only by the eye of the soul. Light is symbolic of the glory of the Divine nature (1 Tim. vi. 16), and of the perfect purity of the Divine character (1 John i. 5). The beneficent influence of sunlight is a symbol of the soul-warming and soul-gladdening influence of the Divine presence (Psalm lxxxiv. 11). And as the light of the sun rejoices the heart of the beholder, so does light and cheerfulness upon one man’s face gladden the heart of him who looks upon it. Cheerfulness upon one man’s countenance brings cheer to the heart of those with whom he comes in contact. Upon this subject we remark—1.That there is a great difference between levity and cheerfulness.Two men may be swimming in a river, and one may keep himself afloat by artificial appliances, and the other by his natural strength skilfully used. The beholders may not for a time observe any difference in the two; but should the first man, by any mishap, lose his floats, then the difference will be at once manifest. He will be in danger of going to the bottom while his companion will keep steadily on his way. The natural strength and long practice of the latter has made it second nature to keep on the surface of the water. There is just such a difference between gaiety which depends for its continuance upon good fortune and external excitement, and the cheerfulness that springs from a never-failing and internal source. In the first case, if the floating-tackle is cut away the poor man sinks into despondency and gloom, but in the second there is a buoyancyof heart which, if overwhelmed for a moment by some sudden wave of adversity, brings him again to the surface and re-awakens hope within him. The first is of earth, but, although natural temperament may do much towards the second, real and heartfelt cheerfulness can only be born of a consciousness of reconciliation with God and goodwill to men. It is not, however, a universal characteristic of good men and women. But—2.It is a man’s duty to cultivate this cheerfulness of heart. It is good for the man himself.If sunlight gives strength to the body this sunlight of the soul is strengthening to the whole man. Cheerfulness gives courage to face the difficulties of life—that gladness of heart which springs from “doing justly, loving mercy, and walking with God” is a power which no man for his own sake can afford to throw away.But it is also a duty which we owe to others.In this sense “the light of the eyes rejoices the heart,” the incoming of a cheerful man into a house where the inhabitants are depressed and sad is like the entrance of sunlight into a darkened room—it changes the entire aspect of things. The influence of such a man is like a shower upon the parched earth—everything seems to spring into new life after it. If it has so reviving and cheering an effect in a world where there is so much to sadden and to weaken men’s energies, every man is bound to cultivate a habit of cheerfulness as a matter of duty.It is part of the duty which men owe to God.It is a manifestation of confidence in His righteous character and merciful purpose towards His creatures. It reveals contentment with the lot in life which He has assigned to us—a spirit of submission to His will. Therefore it is an apostolic command,“Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, rejoice”(Phil. iv. 4). The second clause of the verse relates to another very fruitful source of gladness, viz., the reception of a“good report,”or good news. 1.A good report gives joy, or “maketh the bones fat” in proportion as such news was desired.If the sick man, who has been awaiting the verdict of his physician, receives from him the assurance that he will recover his health, his heart is filled with joy at the tidings. He can testify that his “bones waxed old” while he was filled with fear and doubt as to his case, but the “good report” makes him renew his youth, and is the first step to renewal of health. The good news that the guilt of the soul can be removed fills the soul with joy in proportion as the misery of unforgiven sin has weighed upon the spirit. This was David’s experience:“When I kept silence”(while my sin was unconfessed)“my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.” . . . “I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.”And the consciousness of forgiveness enabled him to sing of the blessedness of him“whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered”(Psa. xxxii. 1–5). 2.The joy imparted by a “good report” of this nature is shadowed forth by the gladness which is imparted to men who have long sat in darkness, when they greet again the light of day.What must be the joy of an arctic traveller, when, after months of night, he sees the first streak of returning sunlight? Who can describe the feelings of a prisoner who has been for years immured in a gloomy dungeon, when he again finds himself in the sunshine? Or who but those who have passed through the experience can conceive what the blind man feels who has never seen the light of day, when first his eyes are opened? So none but he who has been in darkness of soul on account of unpardoned sin, and has felt the joy of a sense of reconciliation with his God, can know how the “good report” that “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners” “maketh the bones fat,” in other words, gives him a sense of new life.
outlines and suggestive comments.
We may conceive this verse to show the comfort of life as it cometh from God, and from man. From God in the light of the eyes, and in seeing those good things which He bestowed upon us. From man in hearing the good report and testimony which he giveth of us. Or else we may take the first part of the verse more literally, to speak only of the joy of the heart, which by the light of the eye from the pleasant objects thereof, is conveyed to it, and so the good contentment of a man from a good report to be compared to it. Now well may these be compared together, for report is the eye whereby the world judgeth of a man, and it is also a useful eye whereby a man judgeth of himself. . . . Certainly it must be the care of the godly, not only to keep a good conscience, but to have a good report.—Jermin.
It is riches enough to be well reputed and well spoken of. It pleased David well that “whatsoever he did pleased the people.” It pleased John well that his friend “Demetrius had a good report of the truth” (3 John 12), and he “had no greater joy than to hear that his children walked in the truth.”—Trapp.
The bonesmay be called the foundation of the corporeal structure, on which its strength and stability depend. The cavities and cellular parts of the bones are filled with the marrow, of which the fine oil, by one of the beautiful processes of the animal physiology, pervades their substance, and, incorporating with the earthy and silicious material, gives them their cohesive tenacity, a provision without which they would be brittle and easily fractured. “Making the bones fat,” means supplying them with plenty of marrow, and thus strengthening the entire system. Hence “marrow to the bones” is a Bible figure for anything eminently gratifying and beneficial. The import, then, of the expression of the text is, that a good reputation contributes eminently to enjoyment, to comfort, health, active vigour, spirit, life, and happiness. By some, however,“a good report”is understood ofgood tidings,and they conceive “the light of the eyes” to refer to the happy glancing looks of the messenger of such good tidings.—Wardlaw.
“The light of the eyes” means the look of a pleased friend. When He is the Almighty, how it “rejoices the heart.” And when the rapture of another sense is secured by“a good report”(a good hearing,as it is in the original), thegood newsbeing also from on high, it reaches the very penetration of our comfort.—Miller.
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses31–33.
How to Give and Take Reproof.
I. Reproof is good when it is given with a good intention and when it is given wisely.Those who undertake to handle the amputating knife should be men who are intent upon the healing of the patient, and must also know where to cut and how much to cut, otherwise the operation may tend to death rather than to life. The reprover, if he would administer a “reproof of life,” must be wise and kind. He must desire to do good to the man whom he reproves, he must know how to administer the reproof, and must leave off reproving as soon as the necessary wound has been inflicted; if he does not, he may injure the soul instead of destroying the sin.
II. He who takes such reproof displays the highest wisdom and the truest humility.We admire the fortitude of a man who will bear without a murmur a painful operation for the sake of the good that will come to him afterwards. We praise him for the pluck and courage which he shows in enduring bravely,that which we know gives him intense pain of body. And we ought to give as much praise to him who will submit to reproof in a spirit of humility, for there is nothing which is more unpalatable or painful to a man’s spirit. Nothing is a surer sign of true wisdom than such submission.
III. He who will not submit to such reproof can never attain to true honour.There can be no honour where there is ignorance, and there can be no knowledge where there is an unwillingness to receive reproof. The greatest kings and statesmen, who are now enthroned by the honour and submission of millions of their fellow-creatures, had once to submit to the instruction of their nurses and tutors. There is no honour in holding a high position unless he who holds it knows how to fill it worthily; and such knowledge can only be acquired by stooping not only to instruction but to reproof, which is always a necessary element of instruction. (For fuller treatment on the subject of these verses, see Homiletics on chaptersiii. 11, 12;xii. 1;xiii. 18;xv. 10. Pages 247, 323, 410, etc.)
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 31. There is a reproof not of life, but of death, when hatred seeketh disgrace or ruin by it, and when it is used, as St. Bernard speaketh, not to instruction in the spirit of meekness, but to destruction in the spirit of fury. When it is reproach, and not reproof, it amendeth not, but hardeneth the offender in his wickedness. But with the wise there is the reproof, not of death, but of life; that is, direction unto a virtuous life, and teaching true wisdom, which is the life of the soul. The words of the wise, saith the Preacher, are as nails fastened: for as nails are driven in, but it is not so much to make a hole as to fasten and strengthen; so the words of the wise in reproof do pierce, but it is not so much to wound, as to fasten their reproof, and to give strength unto it.—Jermin.
Oh, it is a blessed thing to have others tell us of our faults, and as it were to pull us out of the fire with violence, as Jude speaks; rather to pull us out with violence, with sharp rebukes, than we should perish in our sins. If a man be to weed his ground, he sees need of the benefit of others; if a man be to demolish his house, he will be thankful to others for their help; so he that is to pull down his corruption, that old house, he should be thankful to others that will tell him, “This is rotten, and this is to blame;” who, if he be not thankful for seasonable reproof, he knows not what self-judging means. If any man be so uncivil when a man shows him a spot on his garment to grow choleric, will we not judge him to be an unreasonable man? And so when a man shall be told, “This will hinder your comfort another day;” if men were not spiritually besotted, would they swell and be angry against such a man?—Sibbes.
Verse 32. Wilt thou destroy that for which Christ died? (1 Cor. viii. 11). What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? There is no great matter in the earth but man; nothing great in man but his soul, saith Faverinus. “Whose image and superscription is it” but God’s? “Give,” therefore, “to God the things that are God’s,” by delivering it up to discipline. . . . “Suffer,” saith the great apostle, “the word of exhortation;” suffer them in God’s name, sharp though they be, and set on with some more than ordinary earnestness. Better it is that the vine should bleed, than die. Certes, “When the Lord shall have done to you all the good that He hath spoken concerning you, and hath brought you to His kingdom, this shall be no grief unto you, nor offence of heart,” as He said in a like case (1 Sam. xxv. 30, 31), that you have hearkened to instruction, and been bettered by reproof.—Trapp.
There are two things that cause mento rage against reproof. 1.Guilt of the sin objected.Guilt makes men angry when they are searched, and, like horses that are galled, to kick if they are but touched. The mildest waters are troublesome to sore eyes. There is scarce a more probable sign that the crime objected is true than wrath and bitterness against the person that charges us with it. 2.Love to sin makes men impatient under reproof.When a person’s sin is to him as “the apple of his eye,” no wonder that he is offended at any that touch it.—Swinnock.
Verse 33. Abigail was not made David’s wife till she thought it honour enough to wash the feet of the meanest of David’s servants (1 Sam. xxv. 40). Moses must be forty years a stranger in Midian before he becomes king in Jeshurun. . . . Luther observed that ever, for most part, before God set him upon any special service for the good of the Church he had some sore fit of sickness. Surely as the lower the ebb the hither the tide; so the lower any descend in humiliation the higher they shall ascend in exaltation; the lower this foundation of humility is laid the higher shall be the roof of honour be overlaid.—Trapp.
Not only doth humility go before honour in the course of things, but is also before honour in the dignity and excellency of it. So that when humility hath brought a man to honour even then his greatest honour is humility.—Jermin.
“Reproof,”which has been twice used, and“instruction,”or ratherdiscipline,which is now made to balance it in these last important texts, have a respect of painfulness: and Solomon, in this verse, tempers that pain, by showing what discipline really is:—“The fear of Jehovah.”“Fearhath torment,” says the apostle John (1 John iv. 18). That fear is not altogether the fear of our text, but is a part of it. I do not remember the fear of the Almighty as a title applied in heaven.“The fear of Jehovah”has some particle of painfulness; and that painfulness makes it of the nature of“discipline.”The best discipline of the saints is the abiding fear of the Almighty. The proverb seems to imply that it will not last always; that it is painful; and that we shall not continue pained; that it is necessary for us to be under just that gentle sort of discipline thatfearcan give while we are in this world. And that necessity he states, in that“before glory is affliction.”Not honour (as in the English version), so much asweight,or“glory.”Nothumility,but primarily,toil; ergo,more generally“affliction.”“We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts xiv. 22).—Miller.
“I am not worthy,” is the voice of the saints. They know God, and God knows them. Moses was the meekest man upon earth, and therefore God is said to know him by name (Exod. xxxiii. 17). “I am less than the least of all thy mercies,” saith Jacob (Gen. xxxii. 10). Lo, he was honoured to be father of the twelve tribes, and heir of the blessing. “Who am I, O Lord?” says David. He was advanced from that lowly conceit to be king of Israel. “I am not worthy to loose the latchet of Christ’s shoe,” saith John Baptist (Matt. iii. 11). Lo, he was esteemed worthy to lay his hand on Christ’s head. “I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof,” says the centurion, therefore Christ commended him. “I have not found so great faith; no, not in Israel” (Matt. viii. 8). “I am the least of the apostles,” saith Paul; “not worthy to be called an apostle” (1 Cor. xv. 9). Therefore he is honoured with the title oftheapostle. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord,” saith the holy virgin; therefore she was honoured to be the mother of the Lord, and to have all generations call her blessed. Thisnon sum dignus,the humble annihilation of themselves, hath gotten them the honour of saints. In spiritual graces let us study to be great, and not to know it, as the fixed stars are every one bigger than the earth, yet appear to us less than torches. Not to behigh-minded in high deserts is the way to blessed preferment. Humility is not only a virtue itself, but a vessel to contain other virtues; like embers, which keep the fire alive that is hidden under it. It emptieth itself by a modest estimation of its own worth, that Christ may fill it. It wrestleth with God, like Jacob, and wins by yielding; the lower it stoops to the ground the more advantage it gets to obtain the blessing. All my pride, O Lord, is from the want of knowing Thee. The leper casts himself down, and Christ bids him arise. Humility is the gentleman-usher to glory. God that sends away the rich empty from His gates loves to “fill the hungry with good things” (Luke i. 53). The air passeth by the full vessel, and only filleth that is empty. This is the difference between the proud and beggars; both agree in not having, differ in craving. The proud arepaupares spiritus,the humble arepaupares spiritu.“Blessed are,” not the poor spirits, but “the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. v. 3). Such as felt their wants sought and besought God for supply. “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain be brought low” (Luke iii. 5). The lowly mind shall be exalted, the high-towering ambitions shall be thrown down. How should God say to the merchant that glories in his wealth, to the usurer that admireth his moneys, to the gallant that wonders that his good clothes do not prefer him, “Arise!” Alas! they are up already; they were never down. A dwarf in a great throng, seeming low on his knees, was bidden by the prince to stand up; alas! he was before at his highest. God cannot be so mistaken as to encourage their standing up who never yet had the manners to cast themselves down. Says Augustine, “Descend, that ye may rise up to God; for you have fallen by rising up against God.” He that is a mountebank must level himself even with the ground; if humbleness hath once thrown him down and brought him to his knees, he shall hear the patron and pattern of humbleness comforting him with asurge—“Arise. . . .” The guest that sets himself down at the lower end of the table shall hear the feast-maker kindly remove him, “Friend, sit up higher” (Luke xiv. 10). If Esther fall at Ahasuerus’ feet, he will take her by the hand, and bid her arise. When Peter fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me; I am a sinful man, O, Lord” (Luke v. 8–10), he presently was raised up with, “Fear not, thou shalt catch men.”. . . Who is heard to say with Paul, “I am the chief of sinners?” (1 Tim. i. 15) such a humble confession scarce heard of. But Christ had given him asurgeon his former humbling: “Arise and bear My name before Gentiles and kings,” etc. Let us all thus cast ourselves down in humility, that the Lord may say to us in mercy, “Arise.”—Adams.
The more humble, the fitter to come to God, and He the more willing to come unto the soul and dwell in it. The highest heavens are the habitation of God’s glory; and the humble heart hath the next honour, to be the habitation of His grace.—Leighton.
The truly humble spirit is, in society, to the proud and haughty, what the valley is to the mountain: if less observed, more sheltered and more blessed, valleys see the stars more brightly than the mountains that often veil their proud heads with clouds. The mountains filter the waters upon which the valleys live, and send down in soft music to their ears the stormy thunders that beat with violence on their lofty brow. The great sun stoops to the valleys and touches them with a warmth which it denies to the high hills; and kind nature, which leaves the towering heights amidst the cold desolations of death, endows the humble vales with richest life, and robes them in the enchanting costume of sweetest flowers.—Dr. David Thomas.
You must go to honour before humility. This is the law—the law of God. It cannot be changed. It has its analogies in the material creation. Every height has its correspondingdepth. As far as the Andes pierce into the sky, so far do the valleys of the Pacific, at their base, go down into the heart of the earth. If the branches of a tree rise high in the air, its roots must penetrate to a corresponding depth in the ground; and the necessity is reciprocal. The higher the branches are, the deeper go the roots; and the deeper the roots are, the higher go the branches. This law pervades the moral administration as well as the higher works of God. The child Jesus is set for the fall and the rising again of many in Israel; but it is first the fall and then the rising; for “before honour is humility.” Fall they must at the feet of the Crucified before they can rise and reign as the children of the Great King. . . . There are two mountains in the land of Israel, equal in height, and standing near each other, with a deep, narrow valley between. At an interesting point in the people’s history, one of these mountains bore the curse, and the other received the blessing (Deut. xi. 26–29). If you had stood then on Ebal, where the curse was lying, you could not have escaped to Gerizim to enjoy the blessing without going down to the bottom of the intervening gorge. There was a way for the pilgrim from the curse to the blessing, if he were willing to pass through the valley of humiliation; but there was no flight through the air, so as to escape the going down. These things are an allegory. All men are at first in their own judgments on a lofty place, but the curse hangs over the mountains of their pride. . . . All the saved are also on a lofty height, but God dwells among them, and great is the peace of His children. All who have reached this mountain have been in the deep. They sowed in tears before they went forth rejoicing to bear home the sheaves.—Arnot.
Critical Notes.—1.Nearly all commentators agree in reading this verse,“To man belong the preparations of the heart, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.”Preparations,lit.“arrangements,” “orderly disposings,”as those of an army in array, or as the loaves of the shewbread set in order.2.Miller translates this verse very differently. Seecommentson the verse.3. Commit,ratherroll.Thoughts,or“plans.”4. For Himself.Many read “for its own purpose, or end.” There is much in favour, however, of the reading of the Authorised text.5. Though hand join in hand,literally“hand to hand,”as in chap. xi. 21. This phrase is variously understood. Stuart renders it“Should hand be added to hand,” i.e.,although a haughty man should enjoy all his powers of resistance,“he shall not go unpunished.”Delitzsch and Zöckler render it“assuredly,”as in chap. xi. 21. See also thecommentson the verse.6. Purged.Heb.,kaphar,“expiated,” or “covered.”9. Deviseth.The form of the verb denotes anxious consideration.10. A Divine sentence,literally“divination,” i.e., “an oracle,”or“a decision.”“His mouth transgresseth not.”Stuart and Delitzsch read,“In judgment his mouth should not prevaricate, or err.”11. A just weight,literally,“the scale,”“the upright iron in scales which the weigher holds in his hand” (Fausset).Weights,literally“stones,”which were anciently used as weights.13. “They love him,”etc., rather“he who speaketh right, or uprightly, is loved.”18.“The Hebrews observe that this verse stands exactly in the centre of the whole book” (Fausset).19. Lowly,or the“afflicted.”20.Delitzsch and Zöckler translate the first clause“He that giveth heed to the Word findeth good.”Stuart and others,“He that is prudent respecting any matter.”Miller says,“Literally, wise about a word.”21. Sweetness,or“grace.”Learning,or“instruction.”22. Instruction,rather“discipline,” “correction.”26. He that laboureth, laboureth for himself,etc. Zöckler translates“The spirit of the labourer laboureth for him, for his mouth urgeth him on.”Stuart—“The appetite of him who toils is toilsome to him(i.e., makes him exert himself)for his mouth urgeth him on.”Delitzsch—“The hunger of the labourer laboreth for him,”etc. Miller—“The labouring soul labours for it, for its mouth imposeth it upon him.”(See hiscomment.)28. A whisperer,i.e.,“a backbiter.”30. Moving,orcompressing,indicating resolution, orbiting,indicative of scorn and malice.
main homiletics of verse1.
The Heart and the Tongue.
I. The human heart needs preparation.1.It needs to be prepared for the reception of moral truth.When the earth was“without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep,”it was not in a condition to receive seed into its bosom. There was a need of preparation before it was fit to receive seed which would produce “herb after its kind.” Light must play upon its surface, heat and moisture must penetrate the soil. And man’s heart, in his present fallen condition, is like the earth before the“Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”It needs some preparation before it can receive the truth of God so as to be benefited by it—before it is that“good ground”into which, when the“good seed”falls, it“brings forth fruit, some an hundred-fold, some sixty-fold, some thirty-fold”(Matt. xiii. 3–8). As the plough must break the clods before the seed can be sown with any hope of harvest, so the“fallow-ground”of the heart must be broken up—must undergo some preparation before it can be a profitable receiver of moral truth (Hosea i. 12). Our Lord, in the parable of the sower, teaches most distinctly the truth that the good which is derived from hearing Divine truth depends upon the state of heart of him who hears. 2.It needs to be prepared to yield moral truth.All the preparation of the earth is to the end—not that it should be areceiver,but agiver.The seed is sown not that it should remain in the soil but thatthe earth should “bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater”(Isa. lv. 10). So it is with the human soul. It takes in the thoughts of God, that it may translate them into holy words and deeds. The “preparation of the heart” is but a means to “the answer of the tongue.” Out of the “good treasure of the heart” good things are expected to issue (Matt. xii. 35). But unless there is preparation toreceivethere can be nogivingout of anything that is worth the giving. The quality of the water that comes to the lip of the drinker depends upon the quality of the water that fills the well. As we have often before remarked, the “tree” must be first “good,” and then the “fruit will be good” (Matt. xii. 33). He whose heart is prepared by Divine influence to receive the Divine Word will not be at a loss for such an “answer of the tongue” as will bring glory to God, honour to himself, and blessings to others.
II. The preparation of the heart, and, therefore, the answer of the tongue, depends upon God.In nature laws are constantly at work to bring to pass certain facts and results, and man works with these laws, and in obedience to them. But behind the laws there must be a law-giver—behind the working there must be a worker—and this worker and law-giver is God. The preparation of the earth is the work of man; yet both the preparation of the earth and the answer of the earth to that preparation is from God. There would be no harvest if the husbandman did not toil; but there would be no harvest if behind him and his toil there was not the Life-Giver. God is the spring of all activities, not only in the sower of the seed, but in the seed which is sown and in the earth in which it germinates. So in the preparation of the heart, and the right use of the tongue. Man’s freedom and responsibility in these matters are insisted upon in the oracles of God. He and he alone is to be blamed if his heart is not prepared to receive the words of God. He is commanded as we saw just now to “break up his fallow ground” (Jer. iv. 3)—to prepare his spirit for the reception of Divine truth. Yet if a man’s heart is thus prepared, and if by preparation of heart his tongue is able to speak good words, he is not the sole producer of the result. Behind the springs of thinking—behindthe means used by the man himself—God is working “both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” God claims to be the Author of all good, whether in the bud of thought or in the fruit of action. From Him “all good counsels and all just works do proceed.” This is the teaching of the verse as it stands in our English Bible, but many commentators translate the verse differently. (SeeCritical Notes.) The thought as thus translated is similar to that inverse 9, upon which see Homiletics.
outlines and suggestive comments.
The great doctrine of all Scripture is, thatheartreligion is true religion. In nothing is Christianity more distinguished from all other systems of religion than in the moral purity which it inculcates and which it provides the means of producing. Other religions multiply articles of faith and ritual observances, and pompous ceremonials: this alone fixes upon the internal character of the worshipper and the actual state of the heart before God. God first gives grace, and then owns and honours the grace which He gives. “The preparations of the heart are of the Lord;” “The prayer of the upright is His delight” (chap. xv. 8). This was discovered long before Solomon’s time. It was from the very first the primary design of the religion of the Bible. “By faithAbel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain” (Heb. xi. 4). . . . It is God’s prerogative to prepare the heart for Himself, and he does this especially, by establishing the principles of grace and holiness in the mind, and then actuating the habits of grace which His own Spirit has implanted. We need preparation—1.For spiritual worship.The worship of God, as it necessarily includes all the devout affections, is the most spiritual act in which we are engaged. In prayer, in reading and hearing God’s word, and in approaching the sacramental table, we have especially to do with God, in the gracious relations in which He stands to us. And as these exercises raise us above the ordinary level of the world, and are foreign to our ordinary habits of thought and emotion as the creatures of dust and time, we need especial assistance to fix our attention, to purify our motives, and to realise the presence of the Master of assemblies. We need “grace whereby to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Heb. xii. 28). This preparation of the heart is God’s gift, it is God’s promise, it is the Church’s hope, and it has been realised in the experience of God’s faithful people in the ordinances of His appointment. 2.For active service.Christians have much to do for God in the world, in the family, in the Church, in the disposal of their ordinary business, etc. In all these things wisdom is needed to direct, and wisdom should be sought from Him. 3.For patient suffering.It is a great thing to have a heart prepared for suffering. One important requisite is,to anticipate its approach,that that day may not come upon us unawares, that trial may not entangle us in temptation, but may, like the overflowings of the Nile, leave the means of fertility behind. Another requisite is that we shouldexpect to meet with God in affliction.When God announces a long succession of national judgments, He says, “And because I will do this, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel” (Amos iv. 12). This text is usually applied to death and judgment, but it really relates to worldly disasters, and teaches that God would have usprepare to meet Himin the distressing changes of human life. 4.For enjoyment.If there is much to be suffered there is also much to be enjoyed. But a time of prosperity needsheart preparation,lest a time of ease be a time of danger. “It is the bright day brings out the adder, and that craves wary walking.” It was when Noah had escaped the deluge, and had gathered in his firstvintage from the grapes he had planted, that he drank of the wine and was drunken. David, safe in the wilderness, was entangled in fatal snares when walking on the roof of his palace. (Note.Though heart preparation is from God, it is not given as a premium to sloth, but in proportion to the earnestness with which we seek the grace. The following passage from a letter of Colonel Gardiner tells how that man of God sought preparation from God for the Lord’s Supper. “I took a walk on the hills and mountains over against Ireland. And could I give you a description of what passed there, you would agree that I had much better reason to remember my God from the hills of Port P——— than David from the Hermonites, the land of Jordan, and the hill Mizar. In short, I wrestled with the Angel of the Covenant some hours, and made supplication to Him with strong crying and tears until I had almost expired, but He strengthened me till I had power with God. You will be able to judge by what you have felt upon like occasions, after such a preparatory work, how blessed the Lord’s Supper was to me.”)—S. Thodey.
Man may lay out his plans, but God alone can give them effect in answer to the tongue of prayer (ver. 9; chap. xix. 21; 2 Cor. iii. 5).—Maurer.
Often what you dispose in the aptest order in your heart you cannot also express suitably with your tongue. What one aptly speaks is from God.—Mercer.
Men often determine in heart to say something, but God overrules their tongue so as to say something utterly different, as in Balaam’s case (Num. xxiii).—Menochius.
God takes the stone out of the heart that it may feel (Ezek. xxxvi. 26); draws it that it may follow; quickens it that it may live. He opens the heart that He may imprint His own law, and mould it into His own image (Acts xvi. 14; Jer. xxxi. 33). He works, not merely by moral suasion or by the bare proposal of means of uncertain power, but by the invisible Almighty agency. The work then begins with God. It is not that we first come, and then are taught; but first we learn, then we come (John vi. 45). . . . Shall we then wait indolently till He works? Far from it. We must work, but in dependence upon Him. He works not without us, but with us, through us, in us, by us, and we work in Him (Phil. ii. 13; Job xi. 13). Ours is the duty, His is the strength; ours the agency, His the quickening grace. “The work, as it is a duty, is ours; but as a performance it is God’s” (Bishop Reynolds).—Bridges.
Undoubtedly we arrange and plan. That is a matter of consciousness. But these are but the tools of the Designer. He uses our plannings to shape the last word to His mind. . . . The“arrangings of the heart”are, indeed, as much God’s as the final“decree,”because, in brief, everything is. He destines everything; but not in the same sense in which they are consciously man’s. They precede the end, and are present. They cannot determine the end, that is future. I cannot determine now what I will say the next moment. God can. I can and do arrange. But at any convenient point, at any interval, even the very least, God can swing me round. What I shall say is a part of His providence. I cannot ordain to say it in such a way as that it shall be said. In the smallest interval that follows God may tempt Pharaoh, and he may have new views as to letting the children of Israel go. God cannot tempt me to evil; but He can govern by the privation of good. And, therefore, “the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever He will.” This, of course, implicates God, to our weak seeming, in the sins of the wicked. The next verse discharges Him from any such accountability. (See Miller’s rendering of verse 2, inhis comments.)—Miller.
Though a man have never so exactly marshalled his matter in hand, as it were, in battle array, as the Hebrew imports, though he have set down with himself both what and how to speak, yet he shall never be able to bringforth his conception without the help of God. . . . Digressions are not always unuseful. God’s Spirit sometimes draws aside the doctrine to satisfy some soul which the preacher knows not. But though God may force it, yet man may not frame it.—Trapp.
This is a matter of experience to which the preacher, the public speaker, the author, and every man to whom his calling or circumstances present a weighty difficult theme, can attest. As the thoughts pursue one another in the mind, attempts are made and again abandoned; the state of the heart is somewhat like that of chaos before the creation. But when, finally, the right thought and the right utterance for it are found, that which is found appears to us, not as if self-discovered, but as a gift; we regard it with the feeling that a higher power has influenced our thoughts and imaginings; the confession by us “our sufficiency is of God” (2 Cor. iii. 5) in so far as we believe in a living God, is inevitable.—Delitzsch.
Man doth not carry himself one-half of the way, and then as one wearied is carried the rest by God. But it is God who supporteth him in the heart as well as in the tongue: it is He that supporteth man in the preparations of the heart, as well as in the subsequent proceedings of the man. He is a God of the valleys as well as of the hills; and it is He that worketh as well in the lowest degree of goodness as in the highest. His praise reacheth from the roof of the heart to the tip of the tongue, and all man’s goodness is from His grace—Jermin.
main homiletics of verse2.
The Weigher of Spirits.
I. One man has many ways.The text speaks of “all the ways of a man,” implying they are numerous and varied. Man is a compound creature—the animal and the spiritual—mind and matter—both go to make up a man, and from this union of different elements come many different wants and wishes, hopes and desires, and from these manywantscome manyways—many and diversified efforts to satisfy his cravings. He finds himself having many bodily wants, and he seeks many different ways of supplying them. He is generally conscious of intellectual desires, and he seeks ways of satisfaction for them. If he listens to the voice within him, he feels that he has moral needs, and he tries to satisfy them also.
II. As a rule men generally look with approbation upon their own ways or methods of life.A man does this because they arehisways. What is our own generally looks well to use because it is ours. This is especially the case if it is ours by choice—if we have been the main instrument in its becoming ours. The builder looks with partial eyes upon the house that he has planned, the poet upon the poem that he has composed, the painter upon the picture that he has painted, the statesman upon the law that he has introduced. Most men are disposed to judge partially of their own deeds; ungodly men always regard their “own ways” as “clean.” The sinner has a way of life which he has chosen for himself, and because it ishisway he thinks it is a good way to walk in.
III. There is therefore need of an impartial Judge to pass sentence upon men’s ways.Those who look upon us and our ways are generally better judges of us and of them than we are ourselves. They are good judges in proportion as they are wise and disinterested, and have a sincere desire to do us good. From them, if we are not given over to our own conceit and self-will, we may gain much very important truth about our ways. God is a judge who must be perfectly unbiased, and He can have no object in view except our good,therefore when He passes judgment upon our ways, we must accept it as truth. He declares that a man’s ways, though clean in his own eyes, are not clean in His; we must not question the decision of absolute goodness and wisdom, and by refusing to have our ways condemned and to accept “His ways” (Isa. lv. 6–8), shut out from ourselves all hope of bettering our lives.
IV. However one man’s ways may deceive another, there is no danger of mistake on the part of God.“The Lord weigheth thespirits.” A man may deceivehimselfas to the goodness of his ways. Saul of Tarsus certainly did. When he “persecuted unto death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women” (Acts xxii. 4), his ways were “clean in his own eyes.” But God weighed his spirit and found him wanting. And a man may deceiveothers.His outer garment may be so spotless that his fellows may not suspect what is hidden beneath. But there is an eye that can go beneath the surface—“discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart;”there is One whose glory it is that“He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears,”and whose judgment, therefore is“righteousness”and“equity”(Isa. xi. 3, 4).
outlines and suggestive comments.
“As to all the ways of a man, pure in His own eyes, while yet he weighs out spirits, is Jehovah.”This change is very bold, and yet, really, not so bold as the old readings. It explains why“pure”is found to be in the singular. The common version, besides that disagreement of number, is strained, in sense, materially. There are instances of like thought (Psa. xxxvi. 2), and, in one case, great similarity of language (chap. xii. 15); but the emphasis, in the present instance, seems stronger than in any of the rest, and would make us pause. It is not altogether true, the “all the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes.” Moreover, the case most like it (chap. xxi. 2), and which might seem irrefragably to establish it in its sense, we shall find habited in the same way. . . . And while our common version would jump needlessly into another subject, the one I give fits most perfectly. God moves man as He lists (ver. 1), and yet, as to the ways of a man, He is right in His own eyes while“He weighs out spirits.” He weighs outto all that which determines them, and that is, gifts according to the measure that He ordained in the Redeemer. He “weighs out” in the sense of taking strict account.—Miller.
Weighing them, as goldsmiths do their plate and coins, finding themlightandcounterfeitoftentimes.—Muffet.
His “weighing thespirits” implies thatherethe moral good or the moral evil really lies. The mere action is in itself incapable of either, independently of what it indicates in the agent. When we speak of a moral action, we mean the action of a moral agent. A dog and a man may do the same action—may carry off, for instance, for their own use respectively, what is the property of another. We never think of calling it amoralaction in a dog, but we condemn the man for the commission of a crime against his neighbour, and a sin against his God. An action may even in its effects be beneficial, which in regard to the doer of it is inexcusablybad:it may be good in its results, but bad in its principles.—Wardlaw.
They that were born in hell know no other heaven; neither goes any man to hell but he has some excuse for it. As covetousness, so most other sins go cloaked and coloured. All is not gold that glitters. A thing that I see in the night may shine, and that shining proceed from nothing but rottenness. . . . But God turns up the bottom of the bag as Joseph’s stewards did, and then come out all our thefts andmisdoings that had so long lain latent.—Trapp.
The important doctrine deducible from this text is that conscience (simply asconscience) is no safe guide, but requires to be informed and regulated by God’s Will and Word, and that aright intentionis not sufficient to make a good action.—Wordsworth.
How unclean are man’s eyes, in whose eyes all his ways are clean. Certainly whatever a man’s sentence may be of himself, there is something in him that gives another judgment. There is a spirit in man whose eyes, though dazzled much, cannot be put out. That seeth and condemneth much uncleanness, which man’s wilful blindness and seeing darkness will needs have to be purity. There is a conscience in man which, though enslaved much, yet in many ways goeth contrary to man’s perverseness, and condemneth those ways which man approveth. But God is greater than man’s heart, and by the exact weights of His conscience discerning the errors of the conscience He pronounceth all a man’s ways to be unclean.—Jermin.
main homiletics of verse3.
The Establishment of Thoughts.
I. There is an intimate connection between a man’s works and a man’s thoughts.Where there is no thinking there can certainly be no profitable work. The skilful workman has the plan of his work in his mind before he begins to use his fingers to execute it, and throughout its progress his thought is as busy as his hand. A work undertaken and carried through without thought is generally a useless work; indeed, it is impossible for working to be entirely independent of thinking.
II. For the establishment of work there must first be the establishment of the thoughts.When a ship is under the guidance of one master-mind, and this mind is self-possessed and thoughtful, all the crew under his rule move with the regularity of clock-work. Order reigns in the leader, and therefore order rules the subordinates. He is the head and they are the hands, and because the one moves in obedience to a fixed purpose, the others do also. His thoughts are established, and therefore the work is done. Every man’s thoughts ought to be the guide of his work, and if his thoughts and his intentions are fixed, or established, by being in harmony with the righteous law of God, his works will partake of the same character. The orderliness of his outward life will be the effect of an order that reigns within.
III. If the thoughts are to be established, our undertakings must be committed to God.The learner tells the master what work he intends to undertake—he unfolds to him the plan of the machine he is going to construct, or shows him the design of the house he hopes to build, or the picture which he intends to paint, that he may be strengthened and encouraged in his undertaking, and that he may find out whether he has the approval of one who is much wiser than himself. If the master approves of his plan his mind is more fully made up, he is strengthened in his determination, his thoughts are established. Before he might have wavered, but now that he has submitted all his plans to one in whom he has full confidence and obtained his approval, he sets to work with a goodwill which is an earnest of success. If in all our undertakings in life we lay our plans before the Lord, and if we find, upon consulting His Word, that they are not in any way contrary to His Will, but appear to be in conformity with it, our minds have rest, our hopes of success grow stronger, and our energy is quickened to go forward. The establishment of our thought tends to the establishment of our work.
outlines and suggestive comments.
I consider that work as good as done, that trial as good as borne, which I have solemnly committed to God in prayer.—Fausset.
This counsel implies—1.That all our purposes and doings should be in accordance with God’s Will.How is it possible to commit them to God otherwise? . . . We ought not to form or pursue any purpose unless we can,with confidence,acknowledge God in it. The maxim by which, as Christians, we should be regulated, is to be found in the words—“Whatsoever is not of faith”—whatsoever does not proceed from a full conviction of right—“is sin” (Rom. xiv. 23). 2.That none of our works can prosper without God.This is a lesson of which the Divine Word is full (Psa. cxxvii. 1; Dan. v. 23; James iv. 13–16), etc. 3.That it is, therefore, the obvious and imperative duty of intelligent creatures to own their dependence. . . .This is a counsel to which, despite all the theories and speculations of infidelity, natural conscience gives its sanction. 4.That what is our duty is at the same time our interest.The act of committing all things into the hands of God to be regulated as He may see fit, preserves the spirit from corroding anxiety. 5.God will graciously smile on the efforts, and accomplish the purpose and wishes of him who seeks His blessing.God will second and prosper, and fulfil the purposes he forms, and the desires he cherishes, crowning his endeavours with success.—Wardlaw.
Roll thy doings in the direction of Jehovah; and they shall have success according to thy plans. “Roll,”not exactlycommit. “In the directionof” the prepositiontowards. Trust,therefore, is less implied than an attitude ofservice. Roll forward thy work in the direction of Jehovah;that is, with an eye to Him; in a harmony with Him, recognising His plans (ver. 4): and what will be the result? Why, God means to have His way at any rate. Our works will“have success,”one or the other fashion, in His scheme of Providence. He works in the work even of Beelzebub. But if we act“in the direction of”His Will, they will have successas we planned them.That seems to be the meaning. We might read, “thy plans shall have success.” . . . The whole would then mean,“thy doings”shall“have success”(literally, be made to stand)asthy plans, orin the shapethy plans gave them. Or, in other words, God, having an express purpose for all you do (ver. 4), will give success to your work at any rate. He has the exact niche for all you work at. But, if you turn itin His direction,and aim with it at His Will, He will aim at yours; that is, He will give a successafter your plan;if not in the actual letter, still, in what is far the best, in the way best suited to your peculiar interest.—Miller.
Never is the heart at rest till it repose in God; till then it flickers up and down, as Noah’s dove did upon the face of the flood, and found no footing till she returned to the ark. Perfect trust is blessed with a perfect peace. A famous instance of this we have in our Saviour, “Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this cause came I to this hour. Father, glorify Thy name” (John xii. 27). All the while the eye of His humanity was fixed upon deliverance from the hour of His temptation; there was no peace nor rest in His soul, because there He found not only uncertainty, but impossibility. But when he could wait on, acquiesce in, and resign to the will of His Father, we never hear of any more objection, fear, or trouble.—Trapp.
The word “commit” most properly signifiethcast,ortumblethy works unto the Lord. Now, in casting or tumbling, there are three things. First, a regardlessness of any merit in them, for such things are usually tumbled as are little cared for. Secondly, a speediness, for commonly things are tumbled to make the greater haste.Thirdly, there is a weakness and lightness in the things tumbled, for things of weight and strength are not so easily removed. Now, plainly, such are the works of man: there is little solidity or stability in them; tumble them, therefore, upon the Lord—commit them into His hands. And do it speedily; do not defer it until thou seest no farther help in man, but at first betake thyself unto Him, for that will best show the confidence thou hast in Him. And do not fret and vex thyself with care, but tumble and cast thy care upon God. The less thou carest in that manner the more He will care for thee. So that by Him thy works shall be established which of themselves are frail and uncertain; by Him no time shall be lost for the well ordering of them, if thou lose no time in the committing of them to Him. Or else we may take the meaning of the words thus, Put over thy works unto the Lord, and whatsoever thou doest well let Him have the praise of it—let Him have thanks for it. . . . To this purpose Chrysostom borroweth a similitude from the play at ball, saying, “We must cast back and return our works unto God, even as in the play of tennis, the one tosseth, the other tosseth back the ball, and so long the sport handsomely continueth, as the ball tossed and tossed back again between the hands of both doth not fall down.” The comfort of that which we have received from God is so long happily continued to us as we return God thanks for it.—Jermin.
Verses 2, 3. The first of these verses tells us how a man goes wrong, and the second how he may be set right again. He is led into error by doing what pleases himself; the rule for recovery is to commit the works to the Lord, and see that they are such as will please Him. When we weigh our thoughts and actions in the balances of our own desires we shall inevitably go astray. When we lay them before God, and submit to His pleasure, we shall be guided into truth and righteousness. . . . It is a common and sound advice to ask counsel of the Lord before undertaking any work. Here we have the counterpart equally precious—commit the work to the Lord after it is done. The Hebrew idiom gives peculiar emphasis to the precept—roll it over on Jehovah. Mark the beautiful reciprocity of the two, and how they constitute a circle between them. While the act is yet in embryo as a purpose in your mind, ask counsel of the Lord, that it may be crushed in the birth, or embodied in righteousness. When it is embodied bring the work back to the Lord, and give it over into His hand as the fruit of the thought you besought Him to inspire. . . . These two rules following each other in a circle, would make the outspread field of a Christian’s life sunny, and green, and fruitful, as the circling of the solar system brightens and fertilises the earth. . . . Perhaps most professing Christians find it easier to go to God beforehand, asking what they should do, than to return to Him afterwards, to place their work in His hands. This may, in part, account for the want of answer to prayer—at least the want of a knowledge that prayer has been answered. If you do not complete the circle your message by telegraph will never reach its destination, and no answer will return. We send in earnest prayer for direction. Thereafter we go into the world of action. But if we do not bring the action back to God the circle of supplication is not completed.—Arnot.
main homiletics of verse4.
All Things for God.
I. There is one Person in the universe who knows the history of all things.Jehovah knows all things because He made all things. Some men know the history of their nation and the history of many nations. Others know thehistory of the philosophies of the world, can tell when and by whom certain ideas were first promulgated and certain methods adopted. There are other men who are acquainted with the history of natural objects, and whose knowledge is so extensive that it embraces the heavens above and the waters under the earth. But there is only One Being who can claim a knowledge of all things and all persons, and that is the Maker of all things. The smith who has beaten a ploughshare out of rough iron can give us the history of the share because he made it. The sculptor who calls into shape and form a beautiful statue knows the day and hour when the statue ceased to be a thing of the imagination only by the first application of his chisel. And he can give the history of its progress from that day until now because he is the author of its existence. So God, having called all things into being at first, and having upheld them ever since by the word of His power, has a perfect knowledge of their history. But He goes farther. No human worker knows anything of the essential nature of the material out of which he fashions his work—he finds that ready to his hand and can tell us but little about it. But God is the Creator of matter; He called it into being at first, and therefore knows not only the history of the formation of things as we see them but the essential qualities of the material out of which they are formed.
II. Creation is the work of One Being.Most things made by man need co-operation. Although they are but inanimate objects they cannot be made by the unaided efforts of one creature. He must have the skill and strength of others to help him, either in the actual work itself, or in the preparation of the material, or the tools which he uses. A palace can be built only by the united effort of many hundreds of intelligent creatures, and when they have finished it they have only made a lifeless thing. A ship when in full sail is as much “like a thing of life” as any work of man, yet the movement that makes it look so life-like is not in itself but comes from an external power. Yet inanimate though it is, how many a man gave his toil and his strength to bring into existence this new thing. One thing made by man requires the strength and skill of many, and when made is without life; but the One God is the maker of all things that we see around us, many of which are full of life.
III. The world is not co-equal with God.Matter is one of the “all things” which He has made. This being the case it is not as old as God. He was before the material was out of which“in the beginning He created the heavens and the earth.”
IV. The One God is the absolute Lord of all His creatures.This is the thought which must be expressed in the second clause of this verse. In considering it we must remember—1.That the infinitely good God can do no wrong.In proportion as men are good, certain acts are impossible to them. There are human beings who we feel are incapable of certain immoral acts. In proportion as men approach in their characters to the character of God it becomes a moral impossibility for them to do wrong to any creature. It is, therefore, conceivable that if we could find a man who was perfectly true and good we should find a being who could do no wrong. We cannot find such an absolute being among fallen men, but we do have such a Being in God. He is absolute goodness and righteousness and truth—as to His character,“He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”It is, therefore, impossible for Him in any way to be author of sin. Being absolute goodness, He cannot make a wicked man. He hates sin, and cannot increase it by creating wickedness. It is an impossibility for Him to be the author of wrong in any way. 2.That all His plans and purposes are manifestly directed to making men good.If any person were to declare that God delighted or purposed that His creatures should live in darkness, we should point to the sun in the heavens as a direct refutation of such a statement. To any who declare that God is indifferent as to whethermen live in sin or not, we point to the Bible and to the incarnation and death of His Son as the most emphatic denial of such an assertion. And if, in the face of such facts, it is impossible to believe that God is indifferent as to human character, it is a thousand times more impossible to conceive the possibility of His creating a “wicked man.” 3.Therefore no man can be brought to a “day of evil” except by his own consent.No man can be brought to perform an evil deed except by his own consent, and consequently he cannot be brought to the consequences of evil without the exercise of his own free will. The human tempter cannot destroy the virtue of his victim unless he first gain his consent, and whatever evil day comes as the consequences, the sinner feels that it is the fruit of his own act. The sting would be removed if he felt that it had come upon him without any deed of his own. Satan certainly believes that he can bring no man to a day of evil without that man’s consent. Consequently his great work is that of atempter—apersuader—his great aim is to win the will of every man as he won that of our first parents. Nor can God bring a man to a day of evil unless that man consent. He has made man free, and His nature forbids Him to tempt His creatures to evil (Jas. i. 13), much more it makes it impossible that He should coerce their will to the committal of sin, which is the sole cause of all the evil that is found in the universe. The declaration of the text therefore is: 1. That all men exist by the will of God, who desires them to use their present life, so as to be fitted for a higher one. 2. That if a man crosses God’s desires and purposes in this matter, he will come to a day of evil. 3. God will use the actions of those who opposed His will against themselves, and for the furtherance of His own purpose. God was the Author of Pharaoh’s existence, and if he had yielded to the Divine Will he would by obedience have been raised to a higher condition of life. But when he opposed the Will of God, and put away from him the opportunities of Divine enlightenment,thenit might be said that “God created him for the day of evil”—then God over-ruled his opposition to His glory and to Pharaoh’s destruction. And so He deals with all who exalt themselves against His will, refusing to fall in with His purpose of mercy towards them.