1.--I have pointed out that the authority of the Scriptures has been
equivalent to the authority with which they themselves convinced men
that they came from God. Now let us try to bring this conviction home
to ourselves--_to test on ourselves_ the power of these Scripture
utterances which persuaded men of old that they came from above. For
it is as they compel in us the same convictions that we can readily
understand the making of the Bible.
Get outside all thoughts of an authoritative Bible. Forget the fuller
light of Christ in which you stand, which reveals comparative
imperfection in those ancient writers. Put yourself in their place.
Picture the nations of the earth in their ignorance and depravity, with
their blind gropings after God, reaching no higher than fetishes and
idols, and the tales of classical mythology. Then listen wonderingly
to those prophetic voices in Israel amid the surroundings of that dark
old world before Romulus and Remus were suckled by the wolf:
"Jehovah, Jehovah. A God full of compassion and gracious, slow to
anger and plenteous in mercy and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, and that will by no
means clear the guilty.
"Rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your
God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great
kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil.
"Thus saith the high and holy One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name
is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place with him that is of a
contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to
revive the heart of the contrite one.
"What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with thy God?"
And mingled with these noble thoughts, like a golden thread woven
through the web of prophecy, see that strangely persistent groping
after some great Being, some great purpose of God in the future--from
the Genesis prediction of "The Seed of the Woman" to the vision of the
Coming One by the great prophet of the exile "Surely He hath borne our
griefs and carried our sorrows ... the Lord hath laid on Him the
iniquity of us all."
Try to realise the impressiveness of it. All down the Jewish history
in the midst of a dark world came these mysterious voices telling of a
holy God,--teaching, threatening, pleading, encouraging, pointing to a
gradually brightening ideal and to the hope of some Great One who yet
was to come. And to deepen its impressiveness notice that these
prophets asserted passionately their conviction: "These are not our
words. These are not our thoughts, God has put them into us." "The
word of the Lord came unto me. Hear ye therefore the word of the
Lord." How could the people doubt it? They were not good people.
They were stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, "who did
always resist the Holy Ghost". They hated the high teaching. They
killed the prophets and stoned those who were sent unto them. But
conscience insisted that these prophets were right and, by and by, in
deep remorse they built them sepulchres and treasured up what fragments
they could find of their sacred words. How could they help it? Put
yourself in their place. Do you not feel that you must have done the
same if you had been there?
2.--The same is evidently true of the Psalms, the hymns of the Jewish
Church. They, too, owe their position to the appeal which they made to
the highest in men. They were the utterances of noble souls who with
all their imperfections knew and loved God, and all kindred souls then
and since have felt their power in inspiring the spiritual life. The
author's name did not matter. In most cases it was not known.
The position of the Psalter, then, is not due to any author's name, to
any Council's sanction, but to its compelling appeal to the highest
side of men in that old Jewish Community. That was how the Holy Spirit
wrought in making the Bible. Judged by the higher standard of Jesus
Christ we can see imperfections and faults due to the poor imperfect
men who wrote the Psalter. Strange if it were otherwise in that dark
age in which it grew. But when all allowance has been made for these,
who can doubt that that Psalter, which has been so powerful in
inspiring human life through the ages since, caught on to men's souls
in those early days and convinced them that it came from God.
Again let us test its compelling power on ourselves. Keep back still
in that dim old world with its self-seeking, and idolatries, and human
sacrifices, and lustful abominations, with no real sense of sin, no
longings after holiness, and listen to the Jewish shepherd reciting in
the field, and the Jewish choir boy singing in the church:
"Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, praise His Holy
Name, Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, Who healeth all thy diseases.
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction, Who crowneth thee with loving
kindness and tender mercies.... Like as a father pitieth his own
children, so is the Lord merciful to them that fear Him, for He knoweth
our frame, He remembereth that we are but dust.
"Lord, who shall sojourn in thy tabernacle, who shall dwell in thy holy
hill? He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh
the truth in his heart.
"The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down
in green pastures, He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth
my soul. He leadeth me in the path of righteousness for His Name's
sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I
will fear no evil, for Thou art with me."
"Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy loving kindness, according
to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.... The
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O
God, Thou wilt not despise."
Are not such songs in such an age one of the miracles of history? How
could men help loving and reverencing and preserving such songs? How
could they help feeling that a divine Spirit was behind them?
3.--The rest of the Old Testament is the history of God's dealing with
the nation, a story gathered under the guidance of God's providence in
many generations, from many sources since the far back childhood of the
race. The historians were evidently men with the prophetic instinct.
But I make no appeal on the score of their being prophets. The appeal
is made by the history itself. Was ever national history so
extraordinarily written? It is the history of an evil and rebellious
people, yet everything is looked at in relation to the God of
Righteousness. Records of other ancient nations tell what this or that
great king accomplished, how the people conquered or were conquered by
their enemies. In these Jewish records everything is of God--a
righteous, holy God. It is God who conquered, God who delivered, God
who punished, God who fought. There is no boasting of the national
glory, no flattering of the national vanity; their greatest sins and
disgraces and punishments are recorded just as fully as their triumphs
and their joys. In the records of other nations the chief stress is
laid on power and prosperity and comfort and wealth. In these strange
records goodness seems to be the only thing of importance. To do the
right, to please the holy God is of infinitely more value than to be
powerful or rich or successful in Life. "He did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord." "He did that which was evil in the sight of
the Lord," are the epitaphs of their most famous kings.
Therefore the national history of Israel also holds its position by its
appeal to the religious instinct. No author's name, no theory of its
composition affects its position. Whatever its imperfection, it has
impressed itself upon us as the simple story of God's dealing with men.