Psalm 50:21 These things have you done, and I kept silence; you thought that I was altogether such an one as yourself: but I will reprove you… Some one has said, In the beginning of Scripture we read that God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness"; and, all through history, man has been saying, "Let us make God in our image, after our likeness." How apt the observation is, let the gods many of paganism, and the gods many of Christianity, testify. Men see as they are, and not otherwise. 1. What does the suspicious, distrustful person make God to be? He projects upon the Divine character his own character; and suspicion must therefore be a leading feature in the character of his deity. His God is a suspicious being, never trusting His creatures, but always distrusting them, and the suspicious deity has no friends. 2. What is the God of the selfish man like? His religion must be simply a branch of his selfishness — a thing of "all take" and "no give." Can his God be the God who "so loved the world," etc., and whose better blessedness it is to give rather than to receive? 3. What is the God of the hard, unforgiving man? A stern Shylock, for ever unbending as adamant, in his clamour for "the pound of flesh." Without a moment's hesitation, and without a thrill of pity, he can consign his best friend to a hopeless future, and think he glorifies the Divine justice thereby. Pity the man who can be content with such a conception of God. 4. What about the God of the superstitious? His God is perpetually his foe, and never his friend. He cannot help being a slave, in the service of such a deity. His one ambition is to appease His wrath, or court His favour. He must keep on good terms with a God so vengeful, that he may escape the punishment and receive the reward. 5. A grand, gentlemanly deity is the God of the mammon-worshipper. Majesty and dignity are in His every step. Almightiness encompasses His way. Marvellous display, imposing grandeur impresses His devotees. His robe — the rainbow; His crown — a circlet of stars; His chariot — the wind; His horses — the fiery coursers of the sun. What more magnificent and effective than such a God! But nothing attractive, nothing loveable about Him. 6. Contrast with these the God of the Gospels — the God of the simple, true and pure heart. His God is the good shepherd following the lost sheep out into the wilderness, the wise husbandman refusing to rush in wildly to pluck up the tares which an enemy hath sown in his wheat field, the yearning parent going out eagerly to meet the returning prodigal and anticipating his penitence and his pleading in the glorious glow of his merciful joy. These are the very highest attributes, of the highest and fairest earth has ever seen. These are some of the lights of the Exalted One in whom all fulness dwells. So the simple Christian clothes his God in that garment of salvation, and he walks side by side with Him on the earth, in the spirit of Him who said, "I and the Father are One." (J. E. Hill, B. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. |
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