How long, O LORD? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire? Sermons
I. THE DIVINE HONOUR. Of that honour God is jealous. We may be quite sure that he will never act, or continue to act, in such ways as would reasonably give men wrong thoughts concerning him. Take one thing: the good man may be quite sure that God will never so act as to produce impressions of personal vindictiveness. We may not think of God as "hating" anything that he has made. His judgments are official, parts of the wise ordering of his kingdom. No man could have high ideas of the Divine honour who failed to realize the strict limitations of the Divine wrath. Judgments on frail men could not honour the God of righteousness and love, if they were continued forever. They end when their object is gained. II. THE DIVINE PURPOSE. This too must be seen to be official, not personal. The well being of the creature, not his own pleasure, we are to regard as the purpose ever set before God. It is, however, a moral purpose concerning a moral being; and call be best represented by the aims cherished in the family life. Parents hold ever before them the good manhood and womanhood of their children; and in their efforts to secure these things, strict limitations have to be put on times of wrath and judgment. If God's purpose is to fit us to be with him, and to have us with him, his anger can but be a "hiding of his face for a little moment;" it cannot be forever. If God's purpose is our betterment, no agency used by him can be unduly continued. If it were, "our souls would fail before him." Illustrate from the Church in the wilderness; the times of the prophets; such Christian times as the age of our Queen Mary. The Divine purpose of dispensations of wrath must be fully accomplished; and therefore troubles, calamities, and persecutions may have to stay wearyingly long, until the souls of the martyred cry out, "How long, O Lord, how long!" But God has the long ages to work in, and his purposes are ever "ripening fast, unfolding every hour." III. THE DIVINE PITY. The psalmist found comfort in thinking of this. "He knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust." His judgments and his chastisements are always strictly limited to that which we are able to bear. There is something very like untrustfulness in the plaint of our text. He who is sure of the Divine pity and love has no voice in which to utter the fear that his judgments can be forever." - R.T.
We will show forth Thy praise to all generations. Dr. Parkhurst says he loves to think that every man is sent. into the world with something to tell. "That is what makes of any man a prophet, being filled with a story too big for his own soul to house," a story he cannot, dare not, keep to himself. This truth God has given you to utter makes you a witness. You may be a false witness, and no witness is more than he who says nothing; or you may be a true and faithful witness, testifying to the best you know by your face and hands, your smiles and deeds and words. That is a startling thought of Andrew Murray's: "God does not ask us to hide Christ away in our impure hearts." Christ gives Himself to us constantly, but in order that we may as constantly give Him to others. Truth is like the water pressed upon the foul garments, that cleanses them if it is forced out again, but rots them all the more if it is allowed to remain. So is the religion that we selfishly cherish unexpressed. Indeed, is there a worse form of selfishness than that?(Amos R. Wells.). Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock. Homilist. I. As A SHEPHERD (ver. 1).1. His flock indicated. "Joseph" may stand for all Israel, and Israel as an illustration of the moral condition of men everywhere. (1) (2) (3) 2. His dwelling-place described. Dwelt in symbol on mercy-seat. Now, God is in Christ, reconciling the world. 3. His interposition invoked (ver. 2). (1) (2) II. As A CHARACTER (ver. 4). God's chastisements are — 1. Always deserved. 2. Often very painful. Physical anguish, moral distress, social bereavement, disappointment, persecution. 3. They sometimes stimulate prayer. However great our afflictions, if they but. send us in prayer to God, they are blessings in disguise. III. As A CULTIVATOR (vers. 8-13). 1. The work He does.(1) He prepares the soil. There is only one moral soil in the universe in which dead souls can be quickened and be rightly developed, and that is the Gospel of Christ. Souls are seeds.(2) He deposit the seed. God alone can bring the soul into the soil of Gospel truth and root it there.(3) He trains the plant. "The hills were covered with the shadow of it." The Jewish people became a grand nation under His training. So do human souls become under His spiritual training. 2. The evil He permits. "Why hast thou then broken down her hedges?" etc. He did not do it by His direct agency, only by permission. He could have prevented it. He could have crushed the invaders. But He did not. For wise and beneficent purposes, He permitted it. So it is in the department of spiritual culture. He permits evils. IV. As THE RESTORER (vers. 14-19). 1. He restores by special visitation. "Look down from heaven," etc. Dead souls are restored to life because God visits the world. "He bowed the heavens and came down." He appeared in Christ. 2. He restores from apparently the most hopeless condition (ver. 16). "There is nothing too hard for the Lord." "He is able of these stones to raise up children," etc. "Can these dry bones live?" you say. Yes, they can. 3. He restores by quickening the soul into devotion (ver. 18). (Homilist.) Homilist. I. HERE HE IS PRESENTED IN HIS RELATIVE CHARACTER. He is a "Shepherd." As a Shepherd He has universal knowledge, self-sacrificing love, and almighty power.II. HERE HE IS PRESENTED IN HIS RELATIVE AGENCY. "Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock." He leads us now by the dictates of moral reason, the events of His providence, the revelations of His book, and the influence of His Spirit. (1) (2) (3) III. HERE HE IS PRESENTED IN HIS RELATIVE POSTURE. "Thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth." Man, from his nature, requires a place for his God — some point in space where he may meet Him. Under the old dispensation this want was met by His appearing in the Shekinah over the mercy-seat. In the new it is met in Christ, of which the old manifestation was but the symbol. Christ is the "Mercy Seat " where man meets his God. IV. HERE HE IS PRESENTED IN HIS RELATIVE LIGHT, "Shine forth." We want Him to shine forth upon us through Christ. (Homilist.) 1. When we are seeking the pardon of our offences, — when our hearts are stricken with conviction, — when we understand and feel that it is an evil thing to sin against God. 2. When we are oppressed by spiritual adversaries. 3. When commending particular efforts for the advancement of the Saviour's kingdom to the Divine regard. 4. When we contemplate the general condition and wants of mankind. (J. Parsons.) 1. A God of glory. 2. A God of holiness and justice. 3. A God of mercy, full of love and goodness. 4. A God of condescending intercourse. God might be approached with safety and success as He sat upon the mercy-seat sprinkled with blood (Exodus 29:43-46). II. THE IMPORT OF THE PRAYER IN THE TEXT. "Thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth," smile upon us with Thy heavenly favour; cast away all our transgressions from Thy sight; break in upon our darkened souls with the light of Thy truth, and cause us to see and know the truth with enlightened understandings; chase away with Thy bright beamings the gloom of sin and unbelief; and let Thy peace "which passeth all understanding," and the "joy of the Holy Ghost," dwell within us, to be our portion at all times. Guide us by Thy unerring counsel here, and receive us to Thy eternal glory hereafter. (J. S. Broad, M. A.) (Cynddylan Jones.) How they are to be Admonished who Lament Sins of Deed, and those who Lament Only Sins of Thought. Period ii. The Church from the Permanent Division of the Empire Until the Collapse of the Western Empire and the First Schism Between the East and the West, or Until About A. D. 500 The Formation of the Old Testament Canon A Summary of the Christian Life. Of Self-Denial. Psalms |
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