As for the saints in the land, they are the excellence in whom all my delight resides. Sermons
I. WE HAVE HERE THE SONG OF A SAINT INSPIRED BY REVELATION. In this light the contents of the psalm are very varied. We number them, not as re]lowing in exact logical or culminative order, but that we may call the student's and preacher's attention thereto, one by one; observing that we follow the Revised Version, which is most excellent. Here is: 1. A prayer and a plea. (Ver. 1.) Apparently he is in peril; what, we do not know; but, as is his wont, he makes his hiding-place in God; and very touching is the plea he puts in: "for in thee do I put my trust." Our God loves to be trusted. The confidence which his people repose in him is in his sight of great price; and he will hot - cannot disappoint them. 2. The psalmist has taken Jehovah to be his own God. Jehovah - the eternal God - the God of Israel, was his own sovereign Lord. And as he confided to him all his cares, so he yielded to him his entire homage. 3. He finds in God his supreme joy. "I have no good beyond thee" (cf. Psalm 63:25). All the largest desires of the soul have their perfect satisfaction in God. 4. In his fellow-saints, he finds a holy brotherhood. In them is his delight (Psalm 42:4; Malachi 3:16). The closest and dearest bond of permanent friendship is found in the fellowship of holy life and love in God. 5. He shuns the ungodly. In blended pity and anger he looks on those of his nation who have lapsed into idolatry, and exchanged the worship of Jehovah for the service of idols (cf. Jeremiah 2:13; Romans 1:25, Revised Version). 6. The portion which he has in God is secured to him. (Ver. 5.) It cannot slip from his grasp, nor be snatched out of his hand, nor can he in any way be despoiled thereof. God will uphold him in possession, and will give him timely counsel and assistance (ver. 7). 7. God is ever before him, as a constantly present Friend. He is no abstraction. But one ever at his right hand, to guard, guide, advise, gladden, and strengthen. Yea, to give him a steadfast, unconquerable firmness in the midst of numerous foes. 8. Consequently, he has a heritage of wealth with which he is well pleased. (Ver. 6.) The inheritance assigned to him as it were by lot, and marked out as it were by line, was one which gave him a plenitude of delight. 9. For he knows that the near and dear relationship between himself and God is one which not even death itself can disturb. David caught a glimpse of the sublime truth of how much God had meant when he told Moses, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" (cf. Matthew 22:31, 32). We have almost the truth which is expressed in 1 Thessalonians 5:10. "My flesh," he says, "shall rest in hope." Yea, more; David even peers beyond the unseen state (Sheol); he beholds it conquered, and the one whose God is the Lord delivered for ever from the hold of death. And even this is not all; but he sees far, far beyond, awaiting the believer, fulness of joy and eternal delights in the immediate presence of the great eternal God. So that the burden of the song may be summed up in our final thought on this aspect of the psalm, that: 10. Once God's, he was his for ever! "Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol" (cf. Psalm 48:14; Psalm 73:26). Is it any wonder that, with such a heritage in Divine love, the psalmist should find his heart glow with joy, and that his tongue should break out into shouts of praise? Surely if such a God is ours, and ours for ever, we are well provided for, and shall be well guarded, throughout eternity. II. WE HAVE HERE ALSO THE VISION OF A SEER WHO WAS INSPIRED FOR A REVELATION. We have in that memorable sermon on the Day of Pentecost, when Peter opened up the kingdom to Israel, a remarkable reference to this very psalm (cf. Acts 2:25-31). In which the apostle declares that what David said respecting the Holy One, he spoke as a prophet, seeing far ahead the fulfilment of the covenant God had made with him. And in Acts 13:34-37 the Apostle Paul makes an equally distinct reference to this psalm, while he even more emphatically declares this prophetic utterance to be a Divine declaration. And we get a plain and distinct account of such far distant scriptural forecasts in 2 Peter 1:21. Thus we can clearly trace a second significance in the latter half of Psalm 16., as it recounts "the sure mercies of David." For, indeed, if it had not been for the Divine promise and oath made to him - a promise and an oath the fulfilment of which could never be disturbed by the vicissitudes of time, there might not and probably would not have been the like joyful repose of the saint in God, in the prospect of death and of eternity. So that, although the vision of the prophet comes second in our consideration, it was really the first in importance, and the foundation of all the rest. And all this may be brought home in fruitful teaching, in four or five progressive steps. 1. David had had a direct revelation that his throne should be established for ever. (2 Samuel 23:3-5; 2 Samuel 7:12-16; Psalm 72; Psalm 89:20-37.) And to his dying day, amid all the disturbances of his house, this covenant, "ordered in all things and sure," was all his salvation, and all his desire. 2. In the foreglancings of prophetic vision he saw the Holy One in the coming age as its Ruler and its Head. 3. He beheld also the Holy One going down into the tomb. To Sheol; not hell, but Hades, the invisible realm of the departed. 4. He beheld the Holy One rising again. As the Lord and Conqueror of death; as the Head of the redeemed, he beheld him leaving the grave, and going forward and upward as their Forerunner. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus carries along with it that of all his followers. 5. It was on this sublime Messianic hope that the psalmist built his own. And, indeed, it was on this that such as Abraham fixed their gaze, with leaping gladness and thankful joy "That which is true of the members is true, in its highest sense, of the Head, and is only true of the members because they are joined to the Head" (Perowne); 1 Thessalonians 5:10. III. IN COMBINING THE SONG OF THE SAINT AND THE VISION OF THE SEER, WE HAVE MOST ELEVATED AND ELEVATING TEACHING FOR OURSELVES. 1. Here is the great secret of life made known to and by the holy prophets. As one expositor remarks, the antithesis in the psalm is not between life here and life there, but between a life in God and a life apart from him. 2. That God should have disclosed this great secret by his Spirit can bring no difficulty whatever to those who understand communion with God. 3. The grand redemption of God's grace is realized in a fellowship of holy souls in blest and everlasting relation to God as their Portion, their endless Heritage of infinite purity and delight. 4. This fellowship of life centres round him whom no death can retain in its hold, even round him who is the Resurrection and the Life. Believers are one in God because one in Christ. 5. His triumph over the tomb is the pledge of theirs. He has gone ahead as their Forerunner, and has in their name taken his place in the Father's house, preparing theirs likewise. 6. Hence the entire blessing of God's great salvation is summed up in the words, "Thou wilt show me the path of life." In which phrase, as Austin finely says, "we have a guide, Thou; a traveller, me; a way, the path; the end, life. Happy are they who choose this Guide, who follow this way, who inherit such a life! How the troubles and perils of this life seem to dwindle away when we can realize that such a God and such a home are ours! and not ours only, but also of all those who have said to Jehovah, Thou art my Lord"! - C.
All my delight is upon the saints that are in the earth, and upon such as excel in virtue (P.B.V.). On All Saints' Day our mind seems almost to sink beneath the great and holy thoughts which come crowding in upon it, when we think of that vast multitude which no man can number, of all ages, of all nations, of all ranks of life, of all mental and bodily endowments, who, having come out of great tribulation, now rejoice in the presence of Him whom on earth they loved. The Church today is proclaiming the truth of the words of our text. But it is not the Church alone, our Lord Himself shares in this delight. He beholds the beautiful things that He has made; but the King of the heavenly Jerusalem has fairer prospects than these. There is something on earth which He sees and values. The saints for the most part live a hidden life; the world despises their aims, perhaps laughs at their frailties. They pass away, and their names are forgotten, or live only in the memory of the Church, but the Lord makes them the sum and centre of His care and love. He greatly rejoices in the work of His grace, as it displays itself in His elect. Their shortest prayer, their slightest act of self-denial He notices. He gathers them, one by one, out of the ruined mass of humanity, to be jewels in His heavenly diadem.(S. W. Skeffington, M. A.) (William Gurnall.) (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Since the seventh century the first day of November has always been dedicated to the memory of All Saints. Such a day suggests thoughts as solemn and as needful as any which could be presented to us. We watch the procession of mankind as it winds through the long centuries of history, and we note its most striking figures. The vast mass consists of a nameless throng. To our eyes mankind is mainly divided into the eminent and the obscure, the known and the unknown. But to the eye of God, to the eyes of all spirits, it may be, the aspect of that procession is very different. To them the inch-high differences of human rank have simply no existence; for them the thistles of human loftiness have no elevation, and the paltry mole hills cast no shadow. For they know but one distinction, that of the evil and the good. We can see, on the whole, that some men have dared to be eminently good, and that others have been conspicuously, infamously bad. With unspeakable relief we turn from them to the saints of God. "In them is the healing of the world." Do not think of the mere title "saints"; it has been given to some, at least, who have no claim to it, and it has been denied to many more who have been consummately worthy of it. On All Souls' Day we may think not only of those whom the Church has called saints, but also of the long line of heroes of the faith in olden times who are not called saints — of the patriarchs, of Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and many more; of brave judges, glorious prophets, patriot warriors, toiling apostles; of the many martyrs who would rather die than live; of hermits who fled from the guilt and turmoil of life; of the missionaries, Paul, Columba, Benedict, Xavier, Schwartz, and a long roll call of others. Of reformers, of wise rulers, of the writers of holy and who walk with Him in white, for they are worthy. If we would comfort our hearts, strengthen good resolutions, and retain that high estimate of human nature which it is such a misfortune to lose, and which so often threatens to succumb, let us in days like these make ourselves acquainted with Christian history and biography as the antidote to the degeneracy of these worldly and evil days. From earth's mire and darkness lift up your eyes to this galaxy of great examples. We need something to keep alive our faith in the dignity of man. I, for one, find that something, most of all, in dwelling in the life and sufferings of Christ, and next, in considering the blessed example of those who have followed Him, each bearing his own cross. They will help us by furnishing gleaming instances of pure and possible human goodness; they show us how, by true faith in Christ, men just as weak as we are, tempted as we are, yet did gloriously and conspicuously triumph over sin, the world, the flesh, and the devil, and thereby proved to us that we can do the same. See how the universal idol, selfishness, has been gloriously overcome. Pride, too, has been subdued. St. Thomas, of Aquino, was by far the greatest man of his age. One day at Bologna, a stranger arriving at his monastery asked the prior for someone to help him to get provisions and carry his basket. "Tell the first brother you meet," said the prior. St. Thomas was walking in meditation in the cloister, and, not knowing him by sight, the stranger said to him, "Your prior bids you to follow me." Without a word the greatest teacher of his age, the "Doctor Angelicus" — the angel of the schools, as he was called by the affection of his admirers — bowed his head, took the basket, and followed. But he was suffering from lameness, and since he was unable to keep up with the pace, the stranger rebuked him soundly as a lazy, good-for-nothing fellow, who ought to show more zeal in religious obedience. The saint meekly bore the unjust reproaches, and answered never a word. "Do you know to whom you are speaking, who you are treating in this rude way?" said the indignant citizens of Bologna, who had witnessed the scene. "That is Brother Thomas, of Aquino." "Brother Thomas, of Aquino?" said the stranger, and, immediately throwing., himself upon his knees, he begged to be forgiven. "Nay," said St. Thomas, "it is I who should ask forgiveness, since I have not been so active as I should have been." And this humility, so rare in little men, was the chief characteristic of this great man. From that disciplined and noble spirit of the first man of his age all pride had been expelled. "Give me, O Lord," — this was his daily prayer, — "a noble heart which no earthly affection may drag down." What more would we have if, even through so deep a valley of humiliation, there still lies the path to heaven? You see a life spent in brushing clothes, and washing crockery, and sweeping floors, a life which the proud of the earth would have regarded as the very dust beneath their feet, a life spent at a clerk's desk, a life spent at a tradesman's counter, a life spent in a labourer's hut, may yet be so ennobled by God's mercy that for the sake of it a king may gladly yield his crown. Thank God there have been and are tens of thousands of holy and faithful, and therefore happy, souls, full of inward peace. Will you be one of their number?(Dean Farrar.) In whom is all my delight The history of mankind, whether secular or religious, resolves itself ultimately into the history of a few individuals. For though the masses live, yet it is these few who determine the direction and shape the spirit of the age. The rest die and are forgotten; one epitaph would do for them all, except for two or three out of the million. Another fact, and a sadder one, is that the human race seems to tend downwards. The old Greek proverb says, and truly, "the majority are evil." The few only are saints, the few only are heroes. There is bitter truth in David's saying, "All men are liars"; and in Carlyle's, that "the world is peopled by a thousand millions, mostly fools" How dreadful then would the condition of the world be were it not for God's elect few. The deliverance of man has never been wrought by the multitude, but by the individual. See this illustrated in poetry, in philosophy, in art, in science; the leaders are a few, all the rest follow. But art and the rest will not alone save a people. History shows how along with them nations have sunk into the abyss of degradation. So will England, so will every nation, if she refuse the message of God. Of what use would the spangles of art and science be upon the funeral pall of the dying race if death were the end of all? The hope of the world lies in the recognition of, and in obedience to, the Word of God as uttered by His special messengers; and by so listening as to reflect in myriads of gleams, and to reverberate in millions of echoes, the light and the voice of inspiration. In illustration of all this glance at the moral history of the world. What drear darkness in the main prevailed from Adam to Abraham, that great hero of the faith. After him darkness again until Moses. After him till Samuel and the prophetic order. After them till Christ and the apostles. After Him and them the world gradually grew worse; Christianity itself became corrupted till St. Anthony, forsaking all, made his home in the lonely desert, to convince his generation of the infinite value of every human soul. And from his day, now and again, great saints were inspired of God from time to time, — such as Benedict I, , , until in the midst of another dark period the lion-hearted Luther shook the world. It is by such men the world has been kept from moral death; such seems to be the method of God's working. Now let us note some of the lessons of this Divine method.I. WHAT IS THE SECRET, THE SOLE SECRET OF MORAL POWER? Who that reads the signs of these times can fail to see how much this age needs that secret? What was it that again and again overcame the world? Was it not faith showing itself by self-sacrifice? See it in Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and all else. II. THAT THE WORK OF THESE SAINTS IS NEVER PERMANENT. There is infinite pathos in the failures of men and of institutions. Their work has perpetually to be renewed. Abraham died, and ere a century had elapsed his children were slaves. And so with all the rest. III. APPARENT FAILURES WERE NEVER ABSOLUTE FAILURES. No good man ever lives in vain. Each saint has his own Calvary. St. Telemachus was butchered in the arena, but because of his death an end was put to gladiatorial games. What a candle did Latimer and Ridley light in England through their martyrdom, and its light glows still. Then let man think, however discouraged he may be at the moral aspect of men, that a holy Christian life can never be in vain. (Dean Farrar.) People David, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Delight, Excellent, Glorious, Hast, Holy, Honourable, Majestic, Noble, Ones, SaintsOutline 1. David, in distrust of merits, and hatred of idolatry5. He shows the hope of his calling, of the resurrection, and life everlasting Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 16:3 7021 church, OT anticipations Library Man's True Treasure in God'The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup; Thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.'--PSALM xvi. 5, 6. We read, in the law which created the priesthood in Israel, that 'the Lord spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them. I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel' (Numbers xvii. 20). Now there is an evident allusion to that remarkable … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture God with Us, and we with God Messiah Rising from the Dead Smith -- Assurance in God India as Carey Found It Source of My Life's Refreshing Springs, Though Some Good Things of Lower Worth Eleventh Sunday after Trinity. In Thy Presence is Fulness of Joy; at Thy Right Hand There are Pleasures for Evermore. But Whilst the King Has not that Most Blessed Light... Israel the Beloved One Saying from Three Men The Psalmist --Setting the Lord The Joy of the Lord. But Concerning True Patience, Worthy of the Name of this virtue... The Joint Heirs and their Divine Portion Period iv. The Age of the Consolidation of the Church: 200 to 324 A. D. The Wrath of God The Early Life of Malachy. Having Been Admitted to Holy Orders He Associates with Malchus Notes on the First Century: Out of the Deep of Suffering and Sorrow. Angels Announce the Resurrection to Certain Women. Peter and John Enter The Malachy's Pity for his Deceased Sister. He Restores the Monastery of Bangor. His First Miracles. The Creation Religion Pleasant to the Religious. 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