The latter clause of ver. 15 has been well rendered, "When I was wrought with a needle in the depths of the earth." There is an evidence of allusion to the sacerdotal robes, and the undescribable texture of the human system is compared to the exquisite needlework of the high priest's garments. Every man is a bundle of possibilities; but no man has precisely the same possibilities as any other man. Each man can be what nobody else can be; each man can do what nobody else can do. This does not mean that any man can transcend the sphere and limitations of man, only that there is a very wide variety within the limitations. There are, indeed, general powers and faculties, and general elements of character and disposition, so that men can be classified; but within the classes there is what may be called an infinite individuality - remarkable varieties of ability, and even more remarkable combinations of ability and disposition and sphere. Nothing oppresses so much as to think what we should do if it were laid on us to find their right places for every man and every woman.
I. GOD KNOWS EVERY MAN'S INDIVIDUALITY. Science may trace that individuality to heredity, to the bodily and mental condition of parents, to food and atmospheres, or anything else; it remains the fact that the estimate of the individuality is possible only with God. Man must have the actual story of another man's life and experience ere he can discern his individuality. God alone can know it anticipatively from the beginning. A man's individuality is not shown in any one thing; it is the stamp on the life, and the life must be lived before it can be seen. God knows the end from the beginning, because he knows what man essentially is. Of Christ it is said, "He knew what was in man."
II. GOD CAN PRESIDE OVER THE ADJUSTMENT OF MAN'S PLACE AND WORK TO HIS INDIVIDUALITY. Oftentimes the surprise of life is the place in which God puts men, and the work he gives them to do. Men always err when they force themselves to do what they think they would like to do. We are only on safe lines when we do what God gives us to do. He knows us; he knows all places, all work, all circumstances; so he can fit things and people together, and make both work together for good. "My times are in thy hands." - R.T.
My substance was not hid from Thee, when I was made in secret.
: — God, being one, the author of nature as of grace, worketh harmoniously in both His kingdoms. And as in other ways, so in this: in both He createth and hath created by a single act; in both He carrieth on His work, silently yet in majesty. God created us, gave us life once, and then preserves it. Men grow in stature (blessed are they if in wisdom, too), they know not how; they eat, they drink, they sleep, are nourished, they know not how; and so day by day, and year by year, pass through the stages of life, through childhood, youth, to manhood, and mature years. So should it be in our re-creation. In Holy Baptism He re-creates us in His own image; passes His hand upon us, puts the first germ of spiritual life within us, to grow, be nourished, expand, flower, bear fruit, until it take into itself all our old nature, and we become wholly new. "Fearfully indeed and wonderfully are we made;" a marvel to the blessed angels and to ourselves. Strange, through what variety of accidents, griefs, joys, terrors, fears, death, life, His encircling providence girding us round shall have fenced in our way; and He who has all creation at His command shall have made all creation, good and bad, great and small, natural and moral, the holiness of angels and men and the malice of Satan, work together to the salvation of His elect. And this amazing everlasting work is going on continually. "Which day by day were fashioned." It is the very marvellousness of God's works in nature, in the Church, in each single soul, that they go on so noiselessly. "Axe and hammer are not heard," but the house of the Lord is raised without hands. Day by day we rise, and night by night tie down, and see not, except rarely, the growth of others or our own. Did we make ourselves, we might well be concerned that we see not what we are becoming; now we may trust that, although in secret, still we are being fashioned into "a vessel fit for the Master's use." Still, although we know not where we are, how much has been, or is being, wrought in us; what our progress, we must know that something is being wrought. We may not be conscious that we are growing in grace, but we must be that we are acting under grace. We may not see how direr our path is (that we shall see as it becomes straighter), but if we are moving upward we must make efforts, and feel them. Pray we for the grace of God to do each single act, as He shall will, to His glory, and He will lead us whither as yet we know not. But although God forms us day by day, yet are there, from time to time, seasons of larger growth, as in nature so in grace. God, in His mercy, gives us fresh starting points in our Christian race. Some such most of us perhaps have passed; too many, it is to be feared, have wasted. Such are childhood's earliest trials. The bitter fruits we have felt in ourselves from some one sin of childhood, some neglect of God's loud warning or His call, may make us sorrowfully estimate the deep value of such calls, had we obeyed. Such periods, again, when used aright, are Holy Confirmation and the first Communion. Yea, so full is this of the richness of God's treasure, that thoughtful persons have said that none ever went far astray whose first Communion was diligently prepared for, and received and treasured holily. And when these and other seasons have been wasted, God in His mercy visits us anew, but mostly in an austere form. "A mighty and strong wind" must "rend the rock" of our stony heart "before the Lord" ere He can speak to us in the "still small voice."
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People
David,
PsalmistPlaces
JerusalemTopics
Beheld, Body, Book, Continuance, During, Fashioned, Formed, Imperfect, Members, None, Ordained, Purposed, Recorded, Substance, Unformed, Unperfect, Written, YetOutline
1. David praises God for his all-seeing providence17. And for this infinite mercies19. He defies the wicked23. He prays for sincerityDictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 139:16 1255 face of God
1305 God, activity of
1466 vision
4903 time
4971 seasons, of life
5149 eyes
5204 age
5638 writing
5663 childbirth
8438 giving, of time
9420 book of life
Psalm 139:1-16
5027 knowledge, God's of humanity
Psalm 139:13-16
5061 sanctity of life
5199 womb
5971 uniqueness
8471 respect, for human beings
Psalm 139:14-16
6708 predestination
Psalm 139:15-16
5136 body
Library
August 31. "Lead Me in the Way Everlasting" (Ps. cxxxix. 24).
"Lead me in the way everlasting" (Ps. cxxxix. 24). There is often apparently but little difference in two distinct lives between constant victory and frequent victory. But that one little difference constitutes a world of success or failure. The one is the Divine, the other is the human; the one is the everlasting way, the other the transient and the imperfect. God wants to lead us to the way everlasting, and to establish us and make us immovable as He. We little know the seriousness of the slightest …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth God's Scrutiny Longed For
'Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; 24. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.'--PSALM cxxxix. 23, 24. This psalm begins with perhaps the grandest contemplation of the divine Omniscience that was ever put into words. It is easy to pour out platitudes upon such a subject, but the Psalmist does not content himself with generalities. He gathers all the rays, as it were, into one burning point, and focusses them upon himself: 'Oh, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
September the Eighteenth the All-Round Defence
"Thou hast beset me behind." --PSALM cxxxix. 1-12. And that is a defence against the enemies which would attack me in the rear. There is yesterday's sin, and the guilt which is the companion of yesterday's sin. They pursue my soul like fierce hounds, but my gracious Lord will come between my pursuers and me. His mighty grace intervenes, and my security is complete. "Thou hast beset me ... before." And that is a defence against the enemies which would impede my advance and frighten me out of …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year
The Kingdom Divided
THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS: Jonah Page Amos Page Isaiah Page OUTLINE FOR STUDY OF PROPHETICAL BOOKS 1. Class. 2. Commission of Prophet. 3. Biographical Description of Prophet. 4. Title of Prophet. 5. Historical Place. (a) Name of Kingdom. (b) Names of Kings. 6. Outline of Contents. 7. Prophecies of Earthly Kings or Kingdoms. 8. Prophecies of Christ. 9. Prophecies of Christ's Kingdom. 10. Leading Phrases. 11. Leading Chapters. 12. Leading Teachings. 13. Questions. 14. Items of Special Interest. …
Frank Nelson Palmer—A Bird's-Eye View of the Bible
The Tests of Love to God
LET us test ourselves impartially whether we are in the number of those that love God. For the deciding of this, as our love will be best seen by the fruits of it, I shall lay down fourteen signs, or fruits, of love to God, and it concerns us to search carefully whether any of these fruits grow in our garden. 1. The first fruit of love is the musing of the mind upon God. He who is in love, his thoughts are ever upon the object. He who loves God is ravished and transported with the contemplation of …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial
God Omnipresent and Omniscient --Ps. cxxxix.
God Omnipresent and Omniscient--Ps. cxxxix. Searcher of hearts! to Thee are known The inmost secrets of my breast At home, abroad, in crowds, alone, Thou mark'st my rising and my rest, My thoughts far off, through every maze, Source, stream, and issue,--all my ways. How from Thy presence should I go, Or whither from Thy Spirit flee, Since all above, around, below, Exist in Thine immensity? If up to heaven I take my way, I meet Thee in eternal day. If in the grave I make my bed With worms and dust, …
James Montgomery—Sacred Poems and Hymns
Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24
Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24. All hearts to Thee are open here; All our desires are known; And we are that which we appear To Thee, good Lord, alone. No eye of man can penetrate, Another's secret mind, Nor well discern his own estate, Naked, and poor, and blind. The entrance of Thy word gives light: Let it so shine within, That each may tremble at the sight Of his unbosom'd sin. With godly sorrow make him grieve, Till hope spring out of grief, And,cry with tears, "Lord, I believe, Help Thou mine unbelief." …
James Montgomery—Sacred Poems and Hymns
Excursus on the Present Teaching of the Latin and Greek Churches on the Subject.
To set forth the present teaching of the Latin Church upon the subject of images and the cultus which is due them, I cite the decree of the Council of Trent and a passage from the Catechism set forth by the authority of the same synod. (Conc. Trid., Sess. xxv. December 3d and 4th, 1563. [Buckley's Trans.]) The holy synod enjoins on all bishops, and others sustaining the office and charge of teaching that, according to the usage of the Catholic and Apostolic Church received from the primitive times …
Philip Schaff—The Seven Ecumenical Councils
An Unanswered Question
'What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?'--Mark ix. 33. Was it not a strange time to squabble when they had just been told of His death? Note-- I. The variations of feeling common to the disciples and to us all: one moment 'exceeding sorrowful,' the next fighting for precedence. II. Christ's divine insight into His servants' faults. This question was put because He knew what the wrangle had been about. The disputants did not answer, but He knew without an answer, as His immediately …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
Out of the Deep of Doubt, Darkness, and Hell.
O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night unto Thee. Oh! let my prayer enter into Thy presence. For my soul is full of trouble and my life draweth nigh unto Hell. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in a place of darkness, and in the deep.--Ps. lxxxviii. 1, 2. If I go down to Hell, Thou art there also. Yea, the darkness is no darkness with Thee; but the night is as clear as the day.--Ps. cxxxix. 7, 11. I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my calling. …
Charles Kingsley—Out of the Deep
The Deity of the Holy Spirit.
In the preceding chapter we have seen clearly that the Holy Spirit is a Person. But what sort of a Person is He? Is He a finite person or an infinite person? Is He God? This question also is plainly answered in the Bible. There are in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments five distinct and decisive lines of proof of the Deity of the Holy Spirit. I. Each of the four distinctively Divine attributes is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. What are the distinctively Divine attributes? Eternity, omnipresence, …
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit
The Suffering of Love.
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend."--John xv. 13. Love suffers because the spirit of the world antagonizes the Spirit of God. The former is unholy, the Latter is holy, not in the sense of mere opposition to the world's spirit, but because He is the absolute Author of all holiness, being God Himself. Hence the conflict. There is no point along the whole line of the world's life which does not antagonize the Holy Spirit whenever He touches it. Whenever …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit
The Hardening Operation of Love.
"Being grieved for the hardness of their heart."--Mark iii. 5. Love may also be reversed. Failing to cherish, to uplift, and to enrich, it consumes and destroys. This is a mystery which man can not fathom. It belongs to the unsearchable depths of the divine Being, of which we do not wish to know more than has been revealed. But this does not alter the fact. No creature can exclude itself from the divine control. No man can say that he has nothing to do with God; that he or any other creature exists …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit
Inconsideration Deplored. Rev. Joshua Priestley.
"And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness."--HOSEA vii. 2. Is it possible for any man to conceive of truths more fitted to arrest the attention and impress the heart than are those contained in this volume? It has been said that if a blank book had been put into our hands, and every one of us had been asked to put into it the promises we should like to find there, we could not have employed language so explicit, so expressive, and so suited to all our varied wants, …
Knowles King—The Wesleyan Methodist Pulpit in Malvern
Annunciation to Joseph of the Birth of Jesus.
(at Nazareth, b.c. 5.) ^A Matt. I. 18-25. ^a 18 Now the birth [The birth of Jesus is to handled with reverential awe. We are not to probe into its mysteries with presumptuous curiosity. The birth of common persons is mysterious enough (Eccl. ix. 5; Ps. cxxxix. 13-16), and we do not well, therefore, if we seek to be wise above what is written as to the birth of the Son of God] of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When his mother Mary had been betrothed [The Jews were usually betrothed ten or twelve months …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel
The Love of Christ.
THE Patience of Christ was recently the object of our meditation in these pages. Blessed and inexhaustible it is. And now a still greater theme is before our hearts. The Love of Christ. The heart almost shrinks from attempting to write on the matchless, unfathomable love of our blessed and adorable Lord. All the Saints of God who have spoken and written on the Love of Christ have never told out its fulness and vastness, its heights and its depths. "The Love of Christ which passeth knowledge" (Ephesians …
Arno Gaebelein—The Lord of Glory
The Kingdom Undivided
THE POETICAL BOOKS: Psalms Page Song of Solomon Page Proverbs Page THE PSALMS I. The Collection and Divisions: In all probability the book of one hundred and fifty psalms, as it now stands, was compiled by Ezra about 450 B.C. They are divided into five books, each closing with a benediction, evidently added to mark the end of the book. Note the number of psalms in Books 1 and 2. II. The Purposes: 1. They were originally used as songs in the Jewish Temple Worship. …
Frank Nelson Palmer—A Bird's-Eye View of the Bible
The Knowledge of God
'The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.' I Sam 2:2. Glorious things are spoken of God; he transcends our thoughts, and the praises of angels. God's glory lies chiefly in his attributes, which are the several beams by which the divine nature shines forth. Among other of his orient excellencies, this is not the least, The Lord is a God of knowledge; or as the Hebrew word is, A God of knowledges.' Through the bright mirror of his own essence, he has a full idea and cognisance …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity
How the Simple and the Crafty are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 12.) Differently to be admonished are the simple and the insincere. The simple are to be praised for studying never to say what is false, but to be admonished to know how sometimes to be silent about what is true. For, as falsehood has always harmed him that speaks it, so sometimes the hearing of truth has done harm to some. Wherefore the Lord before His disciples, tempering His speech with silence, says, I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now (Joh. xvi. 12). …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great
Christ Teaching by Miracles
We have seen how many valuable lessons our Saviour taught while on earth by the parables which he used. But we teach by our lives, as well as by our lips. It has passed into a proverb, and we all admit the truth of it, that "Actions speak louder than words." If our words and our actions contradict each other, people will believe our actions sooner than our words. But when both agree together, then the effect is very great. This was true with our blessed Lord. There was an entire agreement between …
Richard Newton—The Life of Jesus Christ for the Young
The Disciple, -- Master, it is Clear to Almost Everyone that to Disobey God And...
The Disciple,--Master, it is clear to almost everyone that to disobey God and to cease to worship Him is sin, and the deadly result is seen in the present state of the world. But what sin really is is not absolutely clear. In the very presence of Almighty God, and in opposition to His will, and in His own world, how did sin come to be? The Master,--1. Sin is to cast aside the will of God and to live according to one's own will, deserting that which is true and lawful in order to satisfy one's own …
Sadhu Sundar Singh—At The Master's Feet
Appendix xvii. The Ordinances and Law of the Sabbath as Laid Down in the Mishnah and the Jerusalem Talmud.
The terribly exaggerated views of the Rabbis, and their endless, burdensome rules about the Sabbath may best be learned from a brief analysis of the Mishnah, as further explained and enlarged in the Jerusalem Talmud. [6476] For this purpose a brief analysis of what is, confessedly, one of the most difficult tractates may here be given. The Mishnic tractate Sabbath stands at the head of twelve tractates which together from the second of the six sections into which the Mishnah is divided, and which …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
The Being of God
Q-III: WHAT DO THE SCRIPTURES PRINCIPALLY TEACH? A: The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. Q-IV: WHAT IS GOD? A: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Here is, 1: Something implied. That there is a God. 2: Expressed. That he is a Spirit. 3: What kind of Spirit? I. Implied. That there is a God. The question, What is God? takes for granted that there …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity
Out of the Deep of Suffering and Sorrow.
Save me, O God, for the waters are come in even unto my soul: I am come into deep waters; so that the floods run over me.--Ps. lxix. 1, 2. I am brought into so great trouble and misery: that I go mourning all the day long.--Ps. xxxviii. 6. The sorrows of my heart are enlarged: Oh! bring Thou me out of my distress.--Ps. xxv. 17. The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping: the Lord will receive my prayer.--Ps. vi. 8. In the multitude of the sorrows which I had in my heart, Thy comforts have refreshed …
Charles Kingsley—Out of the Deep
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