CRITICAL NOTES.--+1.+ Nearly all commentators agree in reading this
verse, _"To man belong the preparations of the heart, but the answer
of the tongue is from the Lord."_ +Preparations,+ lit.
_"arrangements," "orderly disposings,"_ as those of an army in array,
or as the loaves of the shewbread set in order. +2.+ Miller
translates this verse very differently. See comments on the verse.
+3. Commit,+ rather _roll._ +Thoughts,+ or _"plans."_ +4. For
Himself.+ Many read "for its own purpose, or end." There is much in
favour, however, of the reading of the Authorised text. +5. Though
hand join in hand,+ literally _"hand to hand,"_ as in chap. xi. 21.
This phrase is variously understood. Stuart renders it _"Should hand
be added to hand," i.e.,_ although a haughty man should enjoy all his
powers of resistance, _"he shall not go unpunished."_ Delitzsch and
Zöckler render it _"assuredly,"_ as in chap. xi. 21. See also the
comments on the verse. +6. Purged.+ Heb., _kaphar,_ "expiated," or
"covered." +9. Deviseth.+ The form of the verb denotes anxious
consideration. +10. A Divine sentence,+ literally _"divination,"
i.e., "an oracle,"_ or _"a decision."_ +"His mouth transgresseth
not."+ Stuart and Delitzsch read, _"In judgment his mouth should not
prevaricate, or err."_ +11. A just weight,+ literally, _"the scale,"_
"the upright iron in scales which the weigher holds in his hand"
(Fausset). +Weights,+ literally _"stones,"_ which were anciently used
as weights. +13. "They love him,"+ etc., rather _"he who speaketh
right, or uprightly, is loved."_ +18.+ "The Hebrews observe that this
verse stands exactly in the centre of the whole book" (Fausset).
+19. Lowly,+ or the _"afflicted."_ +20.+ Delitzsch and Zöckler
translate the first clause _"He that giveth heed to the Word findeth
good."_ Stuart and others, _"He that is prudent respecting any
matter."_ Miller says, _"Literally, wise about a word."_
+21. Sweetness,+ or _"grace."_ +Learning,+ or _"instruction."_
+22. Instruction,+ rather _"discipline," "correction."_ +26. He that
laboureth, laboureth for himself,+ etc. Zöckler translates _"The
spirit of the labourer laboureth for him, for his mouth urgeth him
on."_ Stuart--_"The appetite of him who toils is toilsome to him_
(_i.e._, makes him exert himself) _for his mouth urgeth him on."_
Delitzsch--_"The hunger of the labourer laboreth for him,"_ etc.
Miller--_"The labouring soul labours for it, for its mouth imposeth
it upon him."_ (See his comment.) +28. A whisperer,+ _i.e.,_ _"a
backbiter."_ +30. Moving,+ or _compressing,_ indicating resolution,
or _biting,_ indicative of scorn and malice.
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 1.
THE HEART AND THE TONGUE.
+I. The human heart needs preparation.+ 1. _It needs to be prepared
for the reception of moral truth._ When the earth was _"without form
and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep,"_ it was not in
a condition to receive seed into its bosom. There was a need of
preparation before it was fit to receive seed which would produce
"herb after its kind." Light must play upon its surface, heat and
moisture must penetrate the soil. And man's heart, in his present
fallen condition, is like the earth before the _"Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters, and God said, Let there be light: and
there was light."_ It needs some preparation before it can receive
the truth of God so as to be benefited by it--before it is that
_"good ground"_ into which, when the _"good seed"_ falls, it _"brings
forth fruit, some an hundred-fold, some sixty-fold, some
thirty-fold"_ (Matt. xiii. 3-8). As the plough must break the clods
before the seed can be sown with any hope of harvest, so the
_"fallow-ground"_ of the heart must be broken up--must undergo some
preparation before it can be a profitable receiver of moral truth
(Hosea i. 12). Our Lord, in the parable of the sower, teaches most
distinctly the truth that the good which is derived from hearing
Divine truth depends upon the state of heart of him who hears. 2. _It
needs to be prepared to yield moral truth._ All the preparation of
the earth is to the end--not that it should be a _receiver,_ but a
_giver._ The seed is sown not that it should remain in the soil but
that _the earth should "bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to
the sower, and bread to the eater"_ (Isa. lv. 10). So it is with the
human soul. It takes in the thoughts of God, that it may translate
them into holy words and deeds. The "preparation of the heart" is but
a means to "the answer of the tongue." Out of the "good treasure of
the heart" good things are expected to issue (Matt. xii. 35). But
unless there is preparation to _receive_ there can be no _giving_ out
of anything that is worth the giving. The quality of the water that
comes to the lip of the drinker depends upon the quality of the water
that fills the well. As we have often before remarked, the "tree"
must be first "good," and then the "fruit will be good" (Matt.
xii. 33). He whose heart is prepared by Divine influence to receive
the Divine Word will not be at a loss for such an "answer of the
tongue" as will bring glory to God, honour to himself, and blessings
to others.
+II. The preparation of the heart, and, therefore, the answer of the
tongue, depends upon God.+ In nature laws are constantly at work to
bring to pass certain facts and results, and man works with these
laws, and in obedience to them. But behind the laws there must be a
law-giver--behind the working there must be a worker--and this worker
and law-giver is God. The preparation of the earth is the work of
man; yet both the preparation of the earth and the answer of the
earth to that preparation is from God. There would be no harvest if
the husbandman did not toil; but there would be no harvest if behind
him and his toil there was not the Life-Giver. God is the spring of
all activities, not only in the sower of the seed, but in the seed
which is sown and in the earth in which it germinates. So in the
preparation of the heart, and the right use of the tongue. Man's
freedom and responsibility in these matters are insisted upon in the
oracles of God. He and he alone is to be blamed if his heart is not
prepared to receive the words of God. He is commanded as we saw just
now to "break up his fallow ground" (Jer. iv. 3)--to prepare his
spirit for the reception of Divine truth. Yet if a man's heart is
thus prepared, and if by preparation of heart his tongue is able to
speak good words, he is not the sole producer of the result. Behind
the springs of thinking--behind the means used by the man
himself--God is working "both to will and to do of His good
pleasure." God claims to be the Author of all good, whether in the
bud of thought or in the fruit of action. From Him "all good counsels
and all just works do proceed." This is the teaching of the verse as
it stands in our English Bible, but many commentators translate the
verse differently. (See Critical Notes.) The thought as thus
translated is similar to that in verse 9, upon which see Homiletics.
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
The great doctrine of all Scripture is, that _heart_ religion is true
religion. In nothing is Christianity more distinguished from all
other systems of religion than in the moral purity which it
inculcates and which it provides the means of producing. Other
religions multiply articles of faith and ritual observances, and
pompous ceremonials: this alone fixes upon the internal character of
the worshipper and the actual state of the heart before God. God
first gives grace, and then owns and honours the grace which He
gives. "The preparations of the heart are of the Lord;" "The prayer
of the upright is His delight" (chap. xv. 8). This was discovered
long before Solomon's time. It was from the very first the primary
design of the religion of the Bible. "_By faith_ Abel offered unto
God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain" (Heb. xi. 4). . . . It is
God's prerogative to prepare the heart for Himself, and he does this
especially, by establishing the principles of grace and holiness in
the mind, and then actuating the habits of grace which His own Spirit
has implanted. We need preparation--1. _For spiritual worship._ The
worship of God, as it necessarily includes all the devout affections,
is the most spiritual act in which we are engaged. In prayer, in
reading and hearing God's word, and in approaching the sacramental
table, we have especially to do with God, in the gracious relations
in which He stands to us. And as these exercises raise us above the
ordinary level of the world, and are foreign to our ordinary habits
of thought and emotion as the creatures of dust and time, we need
especial assistance to fix our attention, to purify our motives, and
to realise the presence of the Master of assemblies. We need "grace
whereby to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear" (Heb.
xii. 28). This preparation of the heart is God's gift, it is God's
promise, it is the Church's hope, and it has been realised in the
experience of God's faithful people in the ordinances of His
appointment. 2. _For active service._ Christians have much to do for
God in the world, in the family, in the Church, in the disposal of
their ordinary business, etc. In all these things wisdom is needed to
direct, and wisdom should be sought from Him. 3. _For patient
suffering._ It is a great thing to have a heart prepared for
suffering. One important requisite is, _to anticipate its approach,_
that that day may not come upon us unawares, that trial may not
entangle us in temptation, but may, like the overflowings of the
Nile, leave the means of fertility behind. Another requisite is that
we should _expect to meet with God in affliction._ When God announces
a long succession of national judgments, He says, "And because I will
do this, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel" (Amos iv. 12). This text
is usually applied to death and judgment, but it really relates to
worldly disasters, and teaches that God would have us _prepare to
meet Him_ in the distressing changes of human life. 4. _For
enjoyment._ If there is much to be suffered there is also much to be
enjoyed. But a time of prosperity needs _heart preparation,_ lest a
time of ease be a time of danger. "It is the bright day brings out
the adder, and that craves wary walking." It was when Noah had
escaped the deluge, and had gathered in his first vintage from the
grapes he had planted, that he drank of the wine and was drunken.
David, safe in the wilderness, was entangled in fatal snares when
walking on the roof of his palace. (_Note._ Though heart preparation
is from God, it is not given as a premium to sloth, but in proportion
to the earnestness with which we seek the grace. The following
passage from a letter of Colonel Gardiner tells how that man of God
sought preparation from God for the Lord's Supper. "I took a walk on
the hills and mountains over against Ireland. And could I give you a
description of what passed there, you would agree that I had much
better reason to remember my God from the hills of Port P------ than
David from the Hermonites, the land of Jordan, and the hill Mizar. In
short, I wrestled with the Angel of the Covenant some hours, and made
supplication to Him with strong crying and tears until I had almost
expired, but He strengthened me till I had power with God. You will
be able to judge by what you have felt upon like occasions, after
such a preparatory work, how blessed the Lord's Supper was to
me.")--_S. Thodey._
Man may lay out his plans, but God alone can give them effect in
answer to the tongue of prayer (ver. 9; chap. xix. 21; 2 Cor.
iii. 5).--_Maurer._
Often what you dispose in the aptest order in your heart you cannot
also express suitably with your tongue. What one aptly speaks is from
God.--_Mercer._
Men often determine in heart to say something, but God overrules
their tongue so as to say something utterly different, as in Balaam's
case (Num. xxiii).--_Menochius._
God takes the stone out of the heart that it may feel (Ezek.
xxxvi. 26); draws it that it may follow; quickens it that it may
live. He opens the heart that He may imprint His own law, and mould
it into His own image (Acts xvi. 14; Jer. xxxi. 33). He works, not
merely by moral suasion or by the bare proposal of means of uncertain
power, but by the invisible Almighty agency. The work then begins
with God. It is not that we first come, and then are taught; but
first we learn, then we come (John vi. 45). . . . Shall we then wait
indolently till He works? Far from it. We must work, but in
dependence upon Him. He works not without us, but with us, through
us, in us, by us, and we work in Him (Phil. ii. 13; Job xi. 13). Ours
is the duty, His is the strength; ours the agency, His the quickening
grace. "The work, as it is a duty, is ours; but as a performance it
is God's" (Bishop Reynolds).--_Bridges._
Undoubtedly we arrange and plan. That is a matter of consciousness.
But these are but the tools of the Designer. He uses our plannings to
shape the last word to His mind. . . . The _"arrangings of the
heart"_ are, indeed, as much God's as the final _"decree,"_ because,
in brief, everything is. He destines everything; but not in the same
sense in which they are consciously man's. They precede the end, and
are present. They cannot determine the end, that is future. I cannot
determine now what I will say the next moment. God can. I can and do
arrange. But at any convenient point, at any interval, even the very
least, God can swing me round. What I shall say is a part of His
providence. I cannot ordain to say it in such a way as that it shall
be said. In the smallest interval that follows God may tempt Pharaoh,
and he may have new views as to letting the children of Israel go.
God cannot tempt me to evil; but He can govern by the privation of
good. And, therefore, "the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord,
as the rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever He will." This,
of course, implicates God, to our weak seeming, in the sins of the
wicked. The next verse discharges Him from any such accountability.
(See Miller's rendering of verse 2, in his comments.)--_Miller._
Though a man have never so exactly marshalled his matter in hand, as
it were, in battle array, as the Hebrew imports, though he have set
down with himself both what and how to speak, yet he shall never be
able to bring forth his conception without the help of God. . . .
Digressions are not always unuseful. God's Spirit sometimes draws
aside the doctrine to satisfy some soul which the preacher knows not.
But though God may force it, yet man may not frame it.--_Trapp._
This is a matter of experience to which the preacher, the public
speaker, the author, and every man to whom his calling or
circumstances present a weighty difficult theme, can attest. As the
thoughts pursue one another in the mind, attempts are made and again
abandoned; the state of the heart is somewhat like that of chaos
before the creation. But when, finally, the right thought and the
right utterance for it are found, that which is found appears to us,
not as if self-discovered, but as a gift; we regard it with the
feeling that a higher power has influenced our thoughts and
imaginings; the confession by us "our sufficiency is of God" (2 Cor.
iii. 5) in so far as we believe in a living God, is
inevitable.--_Delitzsch._
Man doth not carry himself one-half of the way, and then as one
wearied is carried the rest by God. But it is God who supporteth him
in the heart as well as in the tongue: it is He that supporteth man
in the preparations of the heart, as well as in the subsequent
proceedings of the man. He is a God of the valleys as well as of the
hills; and it is He that worketh as well in the lowest degree of
goodness as in the highest. His praise reacheth from the roof of the
heart to the tip of the tongue, and all man's goodness is from His
grace--_Jermin._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 2.
THE WEIGHER OF SPIRITS.
+I. One man has many ways.+ The text speaks of "all the ways of a
man," implying they are numerous and varied. Man is a compound
creature--the animal and the spiritual--mind and matter--both go to
make up a man, and from this union of different elements come many
different wants and wishes, hopes and desires, and from these many
_wants_ come many _ways_--many and diversified efforts to satisfy his
cravings. He finds himself having many bodily wants, and he seeks
many different ways of supplying them. He is generally conscious of
intellectual desires, and he seeks ways of satisfaction for them. If
he listens to the voice within him, he feels that he has moral needs,
and he tries to satisfy them also.
+II. As a rule men generally look with approbation upon their own
ways or methods of life.+ A man does this because they are _his_
ways. What is our own generally looks well to use because it is ours.
This is especially the case if it is ours by choice--if we have been
the main instrument in its becoming ours. The builder looks with
partial eyes upon the house that he has planned, the poet upon the
poem that he has composed, the painter upon the picture that he has
painted, the statesman upon the law that he has introduced. Most men
are disposed to judge partially of their own deeds; ungodly men
always regard their "own ways" as "clean." The sinner has a way of
life which he has chosen for himself, and because it is _his_ way he
thinks it is a good way to walk in.
+III. There is therefore need of an impartial Judge to pass sentence
upon men's ways.+ Those who look upon us and our ways are generally
better judges of us and of them than we are ourselves. They are good
judges in proportion as they are wise and disinterested, and have a
sincere desire to do us good. From them, if we are not given over to
our own conceit and self-will, we may gain much very important truth
about our ways. God is a judge who must be perfectly unbiased, and He
can have no object in view except our good, therefore when He passes
judgment upon our ways, we must accept it as truth. He declares that
a man's ways, though clean in his own eyes, are not clean in His; we
must not question the decision of absolute goodness and wisdom, and
by refusing to have our ways condemned and to accept "His ways" (Isa.
lv. 6-8), shut out from ourselves all hope of bettering our lives.
+IV. However one man's ways may deceive another, there is no danger
of mistake on the part of God.+ "The Lord weigheth the _spirits._" A
man may deceive _himself_ as to the goodness of his ways. Saul of
Tarsus certainly did. When he "persecuted unto death, binding and
delivering into prisons both men and women" (Acts xxii. 4), his ways
were "clean in his own eyes." But God weighed his spirit and found
him wanting. And a man may deceive _others._ His outer garment may be
so spotless that his fellows may not suspect what is hidden beneath.
But there is an eye that can go beneath the surface--_"discerning the
thoughts and intents of the heart;"_ there is One whose glory it is
that _"He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither
reprove after the hearing of His ears,"_ and whose judgment,
therefore is _"righteousness"_ and _"equity"_ (Isa. xi. 3, 4).
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
_"As to all the ways of a man, pure in His own eyes, while yet he
weighs out spirits, is Jehovah."_ This change is very bold, and yet,
really, not so bold as the old readings. It explains why _"pure"_ is
found to be in the singular. The common version, besides that
disagreement of number, is strained, in sense, materially. There are
instances of like thought (Psa. xxxvi. 2), and, in one case, great
similarity of language (chap. xii. 15); but the emphasis, in the
present instance, seems stronger than in any of the rest, and would
make us pause. It is not altogether true, the "all the ways of a man
are clean in his own eyes." Moreover, the case most like it (chap.
xxi. 2), and which might seem irrefragably to establish it in its
sense, we shall find habited in the same way. . . . And while our
common version would jump needlessly into another subject, the one I
give fits most perfectly. God moves man as He lists (ver. 1), and
yet, as to the ways of a man, He is right in His own eyes while _"He
weighs out spirits." He weighs out_ to all that which determines
them, and that is, gifts according to the measure that He ordained in
the Redeemer. He "weighs out" in the sense of taking strict
account.--_Miller._
Weighing them, as goldsmiths do their plate and coins, finding them
_light_ and _counterfeit_ oftentimes.--_Muffet._
His "weighing the _spirits_" implies that _here_ the moral good or
the moral evil really lies. The mere action is in itself incapable of
either, independently of what it indicates in the agent. When we
speak of a moral action, we mean the action of a moral agent. A dog
and a man may do the same action--may carry off, for instance, for
their own use respectively, what is the property of another. We never
think of calling it a _moral_ action in a dog, but we condemn the man
for the commission of a crime against his neighbour, and a sin
against his God. An action may even in its effects be beneficial,
which in regard to the doer of it is inexcusably _bad:_ it may be
good in its results, but bad in its principles.--_Wardlaw._
They that were born in hell know no other heaven; neither goes any
man to hell but he has some excuse for it. As covetousness, so most
other sins go cloaked and coloured. All is not gold that glitters. A
thing that I see in the night may shine, and that shining proceed
from nothing but rottenness. . . . But God turns up the bottom of the
bag as Joseph's stewards did, and then come out all our thefts and
misdoings that had so long lain latent.--_Trapp._
The important doctrine deducible from this text is that conscience
(simply as _conscience_) is no safe guide, but requires to be
informed and regulated by God's Will and Word, and that a _right
intention_ is not sufficient to make a good action.--_Wordsworth._
How unclean are man's eyes, in whose eyes all his ways are clean.
Certainly whatever a man's sentence may be of himself, there is
something in him that gives another judgment. There is a spirit in
man whose eyes, though dazzled much, cannot be put out. That seeth
and condemneth much uncleanness, which man's wilful blindness and
seeing darkness will needs have to be purity. There is a conscience
in man which, though enslaved much, yet in many ways goeth contrary
to man's perverseness, and condemneth those ways which man approveth.
But God is greater than man's heart, and by the exact weights of His
conscience discerning the errors of the conscience He pronounceth all
a man's ways to be unclean.--_Jermin._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 3.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THOUGHTS.
+I. There is an intimate connection between a man's works and a man's
thoughts.+ Where there is no thinking there can certainly be no
profitable work. The skilful workman has the plan of his work in his
mind before he begins to use his fingers to execute it, and
throughout its progress his thought is as busy as his hand. A work
undertaken and carried through without thought is generally a useless
work; indeed, it is impossible for working to be entirely independent
of thinking.
+II. For the establishment of work there must first be the
establishment of the thoughts.+ When a ship is under the guidance of
one master-mind, and this mind is self-possessed and thoughtful, all
the crew under his rule move with the regularity of clock-work. Order
reigns in the leader, and therefore order rules the subordinates. He
is the head and they are the hands, and because the one moves in
obedience to a fixed purpose, the others do also. His thoughts are
established, and therefore the work is done. Every man's thoughts
ought to be the guide of his work, and if his thoughts and his
intentions are fixed, or established, by being in harmony with the
righteous law of God, his works will partake of the same character.
The orderliness of his outward life will be the effect of an order
that reigns within.
+III. If the thoughts are to be established, our undertakings must be
committed to God.+ The learner tells the master what work he intends
to undertake--he unfolds to him the plan of the machine he is going
to construct, or shows him the design of the house he hopes to build,
or the picture which he intends to paint, that he may be strengthened
and encouraged in his undertaking, and that he may find out whether
he has the approval of one who is much wiser than himself. If the
master approves of his plan his mind is more fully made up, he is
strengthened in his determination, his thoughts are established.
Before he might have wavered, but now that he has submitted all his
plans to one in whom he has full confidence and obtained his
approval, he sets to work with a goodwill which is an earnest of
success. If in all our undertakings in life we lay our plans before
the Lord, and if we find, upon consulting His Word, that they are not
in any way contrary to His Will, but appear to be in conformity with
it, our minds have rest, our hopes of success grow stronger, and our
energy is quickened to go forward. The establishment of our thought
tends to the establishment of our work.
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
I consider that work as good as done, that trial as good as borne,
which I have solemnly committed to God in prayer.--_Fausset._
This counsel implies--1. _That all our purposes and doings should be
in accordance with God's Will._ How is it possible to commit them to
God otherwise? . . . We ought not to form or pursue any purpose
unless we can, _with confidence,_ acknowledge God in it. The maxim by
which, as Christians, we should be regulated, is to be found in the
words--"Whatsoever is not of faith"--whatsoever does not proceed from
a full conviction of right--"is sin" (Rom. xiv. 23). 2. _That none of
our works can prosper without God._ This is a lesson of which the
Divine Word is full (Psa. cxxvii. 1; Dan. v. 23; James iv. 13-16),
etc. 3. _That it is, therefore, the obvious and imperative duty of
intelligent creatures to own their dependence. . . ._ This is a
counsel to which, despite all the theories and speculations of
infidelity, natural conscience gives its sanction. 4. _That what is
our duty is at the same time our interest._ The act of committing all
things into the hands of God to be regulated as He may see fit,
preserves the spirit from corroding anxiety. 5. _God will graciously
smile on the efforts, and accomplish the purpose and wishes of him
who seeks His blessing._ God will second and prosper, and fulfil the
purposes he forms, and the desires he cherishes, crowning his
endeavours with success.--_Wardlaw._
_Roll thy doings in the direction of Jehovah; and they shall have
success according to thy plans. "Roll,"_ not exactly _commit. "In the
direction_ of" the preposition _towards. Trust,_ therefore, is less
implied than an attitude of _service. Roll forward thy work in the
direction of Jehovah;_ that is, with an eye to Him; in a harmony with
Him, recognising His plans (ver. 4): and what will be the result?
Why, God means to have His way at any rate. Our works will _"have
success,"_ one or the other fashion, in His scheme of Providence. He
works in the work even of Beelzebub. But if we act _"in the direction
of"_ His Will, they will have success _as we planned them._ That
seems to be the meaning. We might read, "thy plans shall have
success." . . . The whole would then mean, _"thy doings"_ shall
_"have success"_ (literally, be made to stand) _as_ thy plans, or _in
the shape_ thy plans gave them. Or, in other words, God, having an
express purpose for all you do (ver. 4), will give success to your
work at any rate. He has the exact niche for all you work at. But, if
you turn it _in His direction,_ and aim with it at His Will, He will
aim at yours; that is, He will give a success _after your plan;_ if
not in the actual letter, still, in what is far the best, in the way
best suited to your peculiar interest.--_Miller._
Never is the heart at rest till it repose in God; till then it
flickers up and down, as Noah's dove did upon the face of the flood,
and found no footing till she returned to the ark. Perfect trust is
blessed with a perfect peace. A famous instance of this we have in
our Saviour, "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father,
save me from this hour, but for this cause came I to this hour.
Father, glorify Thy name" (John xii. 27). All the while the eye of
His humanity was fixed upon deliverance from the hour of His
temptation; there was no peace nor rest in His soul, because there He
found not only uncertainty, but impossibility. But when he could wait
on, acquiesce in, and resign to the will of His Father, we never hear
of any more objection, fear, or trouble.--_Trapp._
The word "commit" most properly signifieth _cast,_ or _tumble_ thy
works unto the Lord. Now, in casting or tumbling, there are three
things. First, a regardlessness of any merit in them, for such things
are usually tumbled as are little cared for. Secondly, a speediness,
for commonly things are tumbled to make the greater haste. Thirdly,
there is a weakness and lightness in the things tumbled, for things
of weight and strength are not so easily removed. Now, plainly, such
are the works of man: there is little solidity or stability in them;
tumble them, therefore, upon the Lord--commit them into His hands.
And do it speedily; do not defer it until thou seest no farther help
in man, but at first betake thyself unto Him, for that will best show
the confidence thou hast in Him. And do not fret and vex thyself with
care, but tumble and cast thy care upon God. The less thou carest in
that manner the more He will care for thee. So that by Him thy works
shall be established which of themselves are frail and uncertain; by
Him no time shall be lost for the well ordering of them, if thou lose
no time in the committing of them to Him. Or else we may take the
meaning of the words thus, Put over thy works unto the Lord, and
whatsoever thou doest well let Him have the praise of it--let Him
have thanks for it. . . . To this purpose Chrysostom borroweth a
similitude from the play at ball, saying, "We must cast back and
return our works unto God, even as in the play of tennis, the one
tosseth, the other tosseth back the ball, and so long the sport
handsomely continueth, as the ball tossed and tossed back again
between the hands of both doth not fall down." The comfort of that
which we have received from God is so long happily continued to us as
we return God thanks for it.--_Jermin._
Verses 2, 3. The first of these verses tells us how a man goes wrong,
and the second how he may be set right again. He is led into error by
doing what pleases himself; the rule for recovery is to commit the
works to the Lord, and see that they are such as will please Him.
When we weigh our thoughts and actions in the balances of our own
desires we shall inevitably go astray. When we lay them before God,
and submit to His pleasure, we shall be guided into truth and
righteousness. . . . It is a common and sound advice to ask counsel
of the Lord before undertaking any work. Here we have the counterpart
equally precious--commit the work to the Lord after it is done. The
Hebrew idiom gives peculiar emphasis to the precept--roll it over on
Jehovah. Mark the beautiful reciprocity of the two, and how they
constitute a circle between them. While the act is yet in embryo as a
purpose in your mind, ask counsel of the Lord, that it may be crushed
in the birth, or embodied in righteousness. When it is embodied bring
the work back to the Lord, and give it over into His hand as the
fruit of the thought you besought Him to inspire. . . . These two
rules following each other in a circle, would make the outspread
field of a Christian's life sunny, and green, and fruitful, as the
circling of the solar system brightens and fertilises the
earth. . . . Perhaps most professing Christians find it easier to go
to God beforehand, asking what they should do, than to return to Him
afterwards, to place their work in His hands. This may, in part,
account for the want of answer to prayer--at least the want of a
knowledge that prayer has been answered. If you do not complete the
circle your message by telegraph will never reach its destination,
and no answer will return. We send in earnest prayer for direction.
Thereafter we go into the world of action. But if we do not bring the
action back to God the circle of supplication is not
completed.--_Arnot._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 4.
ALL THINGS FOR GOD.
+I. There is one Person in the universe who knows the history of all
things.+ Jehovah knows all things because He made all things. Some
men know the history of their nation and the history of many nations.
Others know the history of the philosophies of the world, can tell
when and by whom certain ideas were first promulgated and certain
methods adopted. There are other men who are acquainted with the
history of natural objects, and whose knowledge is so extensive that
it embraces the heavens above and the waters under the earth. But
there is only One Being who can claim a knowledge of all things and
all persons, and that is the Maker of all things. The smith who has
beaten a ploughshare out of rough iron can give us the history of the
share because he made it. The sculptor who calls into shape and form
a beautiful statue knows the day and hour when the statue ceased to
be a thing of the imagination only by the first application of his
chisel. And he can give the history of its progress from that day
until now because he is the author of its existence. So God, having
called all things into being at first, and having upheld them ever
since by the word of His power, has a perfect knowledge of their
history. But He goes farther. No human worker knows anything of the
essential nature of the material out of which he fashions his
work--he finds that ready to his hand and can tell us but little
about it. But God is the Creator of matter; He called it into being
at first, and therefore knows not only the history of the formation
of things as we see them but the essential qualities of the material
out of which they are formed.
+II. Creation is the work of One Being.+ Most things made by man need
co-operation. Although they are but inanimate objects they cannot be
made by the unaided efforts of one creature. He must have the skill
and strength of others to help him, either in the actual work itself,
or in the preparation of the material, or the tools which he uses. A
palace can be built only by the united effort of many hundreds of
intelligent creatures, and when they have finished it they have only
made a lifeless thing. A ship when in full sail is as much "like a
thing of life" as any work of man, yet the movement that makes it
look so life-like is not in itself but comes from an external power.
Yet inanimate though it is, how many a man gave his toil and his
strength to bring into existence this new thing. One thing made by
man requires the strength and skill of many, and when made is without
life; but the One God is the maker of all things that we see around
us, many of which are full of life.
+III. The world is not co-equal with God.+ Matter is one of the "all
things" which He has made. This being the case it is not as old as
God. He was before the material was out of which _"in the beginning
He created the heavens and the earth."_
+IV. The One God is the absolute Lord of all His creatures.+ This is
the thought which must be expressed in the second clause of this
verse. In considering it we must remember--1. _That the infinitely
good God can do no wrong._ In proportion as men are good, certain
acts are impossible to them. There are human beings who we feel are
incapable of certain immoral acts. In proportion as men approach in
their characters to the character of God it becomes a moral
impossibility for them to do wrong to any creature. It is, therefore,
conceivable that if we could find a man who was perfectly true and
good we should find a being who could do no wrong. We cannot find
such an absolute being among fallen men, but we do have such a Being
in God. He is absolute goodness and righteousness and truth--as to
His character, _"He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all."_ It
is, therefore, impossible for Him in any way to be author of sin.
Being absolute goodness, He cannot make a wicked man. He hates sin,
and cannot increase it by creating wickedness. It is an impossibility
for Him to be the author of wrong in any way. 2. _That all His plans
and purposes are manifestly directed to making men good._ If any
person were to declare that God delighted or purposed that His
creatures should live in darkness, we should point to the sun in the
heavens as a direct refutation of such a statement. To any who
declare that God is indifferent as to whether men live in sin or not,
we point to the Bible and to the incarnation and death of His Son as
the most emphatic denial of such an assertion. And if, in the face of
such facts, it is impossible to believe that God is indifferent as to
human character, it is a thousand times more impossible to conceive
the possibility of His creating a "wicked man." 3. _Therefore no man
can be brought to a "day of evil" except by his own consent._ No man
can be brought to perform an evil deed except by his own consent, and
consequently he cannot be brought to the consequences of evil without
the exercise of his own free will. The human tempter cannot destroy
the virtue of his victim unless he first gain his consent, and
whatever evil day comes as the consequences, the sinner feels that it
is the fruit of his own act. The sting would be removed if he felt
that it had come upon him without any deed of his own. Satan
certainly believes that he can bring no man to a day of evil without
that man's consent. Consequently his great work is that of a
_tempter_--a _persuader_--his great aim is to win the will of every
man as he won that of our first parents. Nor can God bring a man to a
day of evil unless that man consent. He has made man free, and His
nature forbids Him to tempt His creatures to evil (Jas. i. 13), much
more it makes it impossible that He should coerce their will to the
committal of sin, which is the sole cause of all the evil that is
found in the universe. The declaration of the text therefore is:
1. That all men exist by the will of God, who desires them to use
their present life, so as to be fitted for a higher one. 2. That if a
man crosses God's desires and purposes in this matter, he will come
to a day of evil. 3. God will use the actions of those who opposed
His will against themselves, and for the furtherance of His own
purpose. God was the Author of Pharaoh's existence, and if he had
yielded to the Divine Will he would by obedience have been raised to
a higher condition of life. But when he opposed the Will of God, and
put away from him the opportunities of Divine enlightenment, _then_
it might be said that "God created him for the day of evil"--then God
over-ruled his opposition to His glory and to Pharaoh's destruction.
And so He deals with all who exalt themselves against His will,
refusing to fall in with His purpose of mercy towards them.
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
_"Even the wicked for the day of evil," i.e.,_ to experience the day
of evil, and then to receive His well-merited punishment. It is not
specifically the day of final judgment that is directly intended (as
though the doctrine here were that of a predestination of the ungodly
to eternal damnation), but any day of calamity whatsoever which God
has fixed for the ungodly, whether it may overtake him in this or in
a future life. Comp. the "day of destruction" (Job xxi. 30), the "day
of visitation" (Isa. x. 3).--_Lange's Commentary._
The day of evil is generally understood, and I have myself been
accustomed so to explain it, of the day of _final visitation and
suffering to the wicked themselves._ But I am now inclined to doubt
whether "the day of evil" has here this meaning at all. There is
another, of which it is alike susceptible, and which, in Scripture,
it frequently bears--namely, the day of primitive visitation, in the
inflection of judicial vengeance, in the course of God's providential
administration. I question if the _suffering_ of the wicked be
intended, and am disposed to refer the phrase to the _instrumental
agency_ of the wicked. "The Lord hath made all things for Himself"
will thus mean that He employs all as instruments in effecting His
purposes, and that thus He makes the wicked as a part of His agency:
employing them, without at all interfering with their freedom and
their responsibility, as the executioners of wrath, "when He cometh
out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their
iniquity," thus rendering their very passions the means of
accomplishing His designs, making "the wrath of man to praise Him,
and restraining the remainder of wrath."--_Wardlaw._
If by God's making all things for Himself he meant that He aimed at
and intended the manifestation of His wisdom, and power, and goodness
in the creation of the world, 'tis most true that in this sense He
made all things for Himself; but if we understand it so, as if the
goodness of His nature did not constrain Him thereto, but He had some
design to serve ends and necessities of His own upon His creatures,
this is far from Him. But it is very probable that neither of these
is the meaning of this text, which may be rendered with much better
sense, and nearer to the Hebrew, thus, _"God hath ordained everything
to that which is fit for it, and the wicked hath He ordained for the
day of evil;"_ that is, the wisdom of God hath fitted one thing for
another, punishment for sin, the evil day to the
evil-doer.--_Tillotson._
God made things without life and reason to serve Him passively and
subjectively, by administering occasion to man to admire and adore
his Maker; but man was made to worship Him actively and
affectionately, as sensible of, and affected with, that Divine
wisdom, power, and goodness which appear in them. As all things are
of Him as the efficient cause, so all things must necessarily be for
Him as the final cause. But man is in an especial manner
predestinated and elected for this purpose. "Thou art mine; I have
created him for my glory; I have formed him; yea, I have made him"
(Isa. xliii. 1-7).--_Swinnock._
God, in His revelations, hath told us nothing of the second causes
which He hath established under Himself for the production of
ordinary effects, that we not perplex ourselves about them, but
always look up to Him as the first cause, as working without them, or
by them, as He sees good. But he hath told us plainly of the final
cause, or end of all things, that we may keep our eyes always fixed
on that, and accordingly strive all we can to promote
it.--_Beveridge._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 5.
HEART-PRIDE.
+I. That which may be hidden from all others is manifest to One
Being.+ There is coin in the world that is not money nor money's
worth, although it often passes through the hands of many before its
worthlessness is detected. But there are eyes which could tell at
once that it was not genuine, and hands which if it came into their
possession would soon reduce it to its true level among the baser
metals. So there is in the world a feigned humility, which has so
much the appearance of the genuine article that no earthly creature
suspects that it is the covering of a heart big with pride. But when
God judges whether a man is proud or humble He looks through the
words and actions at the _heart._ "Everyone that is proud in
_heart,_" etc.
+II. God abhors pride.+ 1. _It is entirely contrary to His own
nature._ God is entirely without pride. His condescension is one of
His most remarkable attributes. God manifest in flesh abased Himself
beyond the possibility of any finite creature. _"Being in the form of
God . . . [He] made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the
form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being
found in fashion as a man He humbled Himself, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross"_ (Phil. ii. 6-8). We always
find that in proportion as men are holy and God-like they are
destitute of pride. The proudest men are always those who have least
to be proud of. Therefore pride can have no place in the character of
the holy and ever-blessed God. 2. _It is opposed to the possessor's
well-being._ God not only abhors pride because He is Himself
supremely good, but He holds it in abomination because He desires
men's good. Whatever is opposed to God's nature must be opposed to
man's interest. He who desires the salvation of all His creatures
hates pride because it holds men tied and bound in fetters which
hinder their approach to Him; because it makes men akin to the fallen
angels. (On this subject see also on chapters xi. 1; xiii. 10, page
305, etc.)
+III. Union is no guarantee against punishment.+ "Though hand join in
hand, he shall not be unpunished." When that which is an abomination
to God is the foundation of a confederation, it must be overthrown by
the power of the stronger arm. And it contains within itself an
element of overthrow. A house may have an appearance of compactness
which may lead a casual onlooker to think it is destined to stand for
many a century. But its foundation is in the sand, and its fall is
only the work of time, even if storms and tempests never beat upon
its walls. So there may be an appearance of strength where pride is
the basis of union, but it can be only an appearance. Pride is a
dividing force and not a binding one, and all confederations against
God being based upon it, they rest only upon a foundation of sand.
(See also on chap. xi. 21.)
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
(1.) If God has made everything for His purpose (ver. 4), how foolish
the man who arrogantly forgets Him! (2.) If God has besought us to
work under His plans (ver. 3), how wicked the man who proudly
mutinies. If God works even in kings (chap. xxi. 1), how absurd the
man who would work away from Him. How can it work well? "Hand to
hand," _i.e.,_ in close quarters (chap. xi. 21), as we shall come all
of us at the last, how can the workers outside of the Almighty
possibly _"go unpunished?"--Miller._
How many sins are in this sinful world, and yet, as Lemuel saith of
the good wife (Prov. xxxi. 29), "Many daughters have done virtuously,
but thou surmountest them all." So I may say of pride, many sins have
done wickedly, but thou surmountest them all; for the wrathful man,
the prodigal man, the lascivious man, the surfeiting man, the
slothful man, is rather an enemy to himself than to God; the envious
man, the covetous man, the deceitful man, the ungrateful man, is
rather an enemy to men than to God; but the proud man sets himself
against God, because he doth against His laws, he maketh himself
equal with God, because he doth all without God, and craves no help
of Him; he exalteth himself above God, because he will have his own
will, though it be contrary to God's Will. As the humble man saith,
"Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but to Thy name give the glory"
(Psa. cxv. 1); so the proud man saith, "Not unto Him, not unto Him,
but unto us give glory.". . . Therefore God is specially said to
resist the proud, because the proud resist Him. Here is heaven
against earth, the Creator against the creature, the father against
the son, the Prince against the subject--who is like to win the
field? . . . It had been too heavy for them, if he had said the Lord
doth not care for them; for God's care preserveth us, and our own
care doth but trouble us; but to say that the Lord doth resist them,
is as if Michael should denounce war with the dragon till he hath
cast him into the pit.--_Henry Smith,_ 1590.
Some make "hand in hand" to be no more than "out of hand,"
_"immediately,"_ or "with ease," for nothing is sooner or with more
ease done than to fold one hand in another. God "shall spread forth
His hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth
his hands to swim, and He shall bring down their pride together with
the spoil of their hands" (Isa. xxv. 11). The motion in swimming is
easy, not strong; for strong strokes in the water would rather sink
than support. God, with greatest facility, can subdue His stoutest
adversary when once it comes to handy-gripes--when once his hands
join to the proud man's hand--so some sense this text--so that they
do _manus conserere,_ then shall it appear that it is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the Living God (Heb. x. 31).--_Trapp._
From hand to hand expresses the consecutive connection of causes
through which the Lord works; though the proud escape one occasion of
His punishment, yet he is reserved for another.--_Mercer._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 6.
THE PURGING OF INIQUITY.
+I. There is in the human heart and in human life that which is not
conducive to human happiness, viz., iniquity.+ Iniquity is
_inequality,_ or _injustice,_ and a sinner is an _unjust_ man. 1. _He
is unjust to himself._ He is bound to render to himself what is due
to his own nature--to care for his own real and highest
interests--but this no ungodly man does. 2. _He practises iniquity
towards his neighbour._ This follows from the first as a necessary
consequence. Shakespeare thus admonishes us--
"To thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."
But if a man is not true to himself, it follows as certainly that he
will not be true to any other man--will not in its real and broad
sense be a just man in his relations to others. 3. _He practises
iniquity towards God._ He does not render to God that which is His
just due, and this is indeed the foundation of his iniquity towards
himself and his fellow-men.
+II. Human nature cannot find within itself a remedy for its own
iniquity.+ The man who is smitten with fever cannot find a remedy for
his disease in his own diseased body--he must look somewhere else for
a cure. There are remedies powerful in curing his disease, but they
must be administered from without, they are not resident within him.
So there is a cure for human iniquity, and that cure is to be found
in contact with mercy and truth, but neither of these is to be found
in fallen human nature, or, if some traces exist among men, the mercy
is not abundant enough, and the truth is not unalloyed enough to
effect the cure.
+III. There is enough mercy and truth in God to do away with human
iniquity.+ He has devised a plan by which His abundant mercy and His
unsullied truth shall be brought into contact with sinful men in such
a manner as to cure them of their sin. Mercy without truth could not
meet the need, neither could truth without mercy. Mercy is needed to
do away with the guilt of sin--to give remission for past
transgressions, but it is equally needful that some standard of truth
and righteousness should also be given, lest men "sin that grace may
abound." Mercy frees the sinner from the penalty of sin, but truth is
brought into contact with his soul to free him from the power of sin.
Being _"made free from sin"_ men must _"become servants of God,"_ and
_"have fruit unto holiness"_ (Rom. vi. 22). And to obtain this end
there must be a reception into the human soul of Divine truth to
transform it--to regenerate it. Hence when the _"Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us,"_ and men _"beheld His glory,"_ it was a glory
_"full of grace and truth"_ (John i. 14). For Homiletics on the
second clause of this verse, see on chap. xiv. 15 (page 364).
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
Loving and faithful conduct towards one's neighbour is not in and of
itself named as the ground of the expiation of sin, but only so far
forth as it is a sign and necessary expression of a really penitent
and believing disposition of heart, and so is a correlative to the
fear of God, which is made prominent in the second clause; just as in
the expression of Jesus with reference to the sinning woman (Luke
vii. 47), or as in Isa. lviii. 7; Dan. iv. 34, etc.--_Zöckler._
The _purging of iniquity_ seems here to direct us to expiation, and
considering that Divine mercy and truth are frequently exhibited in
connection with this invaluable blessing, the analogy of faith
appears to link it here with these combined perfections which kiss in
Christ the Mediator (Psa. lxxxv. 10), and with that covenant of grace
in which they shine so brightly. Should this view be thought not to
cohere with the general tenor of this book, which deals more with
practical points and matters of common life than with the deeper
articles of faith, it may be observed that, when some of its pages
are so fully illuminated by evangelical sunshine (chap. viii. 9), we
might naturally expect--besides this connected splendour--occasional
rays of doctrinal light to rest upon this system of Christian
morals. . . . God purges iniquity by sacrifice, not nullifying the
sanctions of the law by a simple deed of _mercy,_ but combining the
manifestations of His _truth_ by fulfilling these sanctions upon the
Surety which _mercy_ provided (Isa. liii. 6, 2 Cor. v. 21). . . . So
gloriously do these two attributes harmonise. We inquire not to which
we owe the deepest obligation. _Mercy_ engages, _truth_ fulfils the
engagements. _Mercy_ provides--_truth_ accepts--the ransom. Both sat
together in the Eternal council. Both made their public entrance
together into the world. Both, like the two pillars of the temple
(1 Kings vii. 21), combine to support the Christian's
confidence. . . . The exercise of forgiveness is to implant a
conservative principle. _"By the fear of the Lord men depart from
evil."_ The supposition of pardon for a sinner continuing impenitent
would be to unite the two contraries of reconciliation and
enmity.--_Bridges._
The Gospel in (1) _Justification_ and (2) _Sanctification_ is here as
beautifully announced as by any of the apostles. Justification makes
its appearance as a covering of iniquity by _mercy and truth. "Mercy
and truth"_ is the sum of holiness. How does holiness, therefore,
which is _"mercy and truth,"_ cover sin? Undoubtedly by the Gospel
method. . . . But then there is to be a _turning from evil._ This is
Sanctification. How is it to be accomplished? By ourselves, as the
indispensable instrument. Mercy and truth win for us the Spirit; and
then, under this outfit, we are to set out upon the journey. The man
in the temple must lift forth his hand (Matt. xii. 10). But how are
we to begin? This book tells us again and again. _"The fear of
Jehovah"_ is the beginning of wisdom (chap. ix. 10). The _turning_ is
by an access of fear. But how are we to continue? The _turning_ is to
be kept up. It is more like a _departing._ Sin, being slow to wear
out, the turning has to go on; and it becomes a journey; and we
travel each day, just as we set out. . . . And the very last of the
journey, like the very beginning, is by _"the fear of Jehovah."_ The
actual _fear_ of Jehovah, tempered by love, is a thing of
"discipline" (see on chap. xv. 33), which drives the Christian away
from his iniquity.--_Miller._
To fear the Lord and to depart from evil, are phrases which the
Scriptures use in very great latitude to express to us the sum of
religion and the whole of our duty. 1. _It is very usual in Scripture
to express the whole of religion by some eminent principle or part of
it._ The great principles of religion are knowledge, faith,
remembrance, love, and fear. And religion is called the "knowledge of
the holy" (Prov. xxx. 3), and the "remembrance of God" (Eccles.
xii. 1), and the love of God (Rom. viii. 28, etc.), and here and
elsewhere the "fear of the Lord" (Mal. iii. 16, etc.). So likewise
the sum of all religion is often expressed by some eminent part of
it, as it is here expressed by departing from evil. It is described
by seeking God (Heb. xi. 6) and by calling on His name (Acts ii. 21),
etc., etc. 2. _The fitness of these two phrases to describe
religion._ The fitness of the first will appear if we consider how
great an influence the fear of God hath upon men to make them
religious. Fear is a passion that is most deeply rooted in our
natures, and flows immediately from that principle of
self-preservation which God hath planted in every man. Everyone
desires his own preservation and happiness, therefore everyone has a
natural dread of anything that can destroy them. And the greatest
danger is from the greatest power, and that is omnipotency. So that
the fear of God is an inward acknowledgement of a holy and just
being, who is armed with an almighty and irresistible power; God
having hid in every man's conscience a secret awe and dread of His
infinite power and eternal justice. Now fear, being so intimate to
our nature, is the strongest bond of laws, and the great security of
our duty. . . . For though we have lost in a great measure the gust
and relish of true happiness, yet we still retain a quick sense of
pain and misery. So that fear relies upon a natural love of
ourselves, and is complicated with a necessary desire of our own
preservation. And therefore religion usually makes its entrance into
us by this passion; hence, perhaps, it is that Solomon more than once
calls it the _"beginning of wisdom."_ As for the second phrase, the
fitness of it will appear if we consider the necessary connection
that there is between the negative and positive part of our duty. He
that is careful to avoid all sin will sincerely endeavour to perform
his duty. For the soul of man is an active principle, and will be
employed one way or the other, it will be doing something; if a man
abstain from evil he will do good. "Virtue begins in the forsaking of
vice; and the first part of wisdom is not to be a fool." . . . The
law of God, contained in the Ten Commandments, consists mostly of
prohibitions which yet include obedience likewise to the positive
precepts contained in those prohibitions.--_Tillotson._
No object can well be more dull and meaningless than the stained
window of an ancient church, as long as you stand without and look
upon a dark interior; but when you stand within the temple, and look
through that window upon the light from heaven, the still, sweet,
solemn forms that lie in it start into life and loveliness. The
beauty was all conceived by the mind, and wrought by the hand of the
ancient artist whose bones now lie mouldering in the surrounding
churchyard; but the beauty lies hid until two requisites come
together--a seeing eye within, and a shining light without. We often
meet with a verse upon the page of the Old Testament Scriptures very
like those ancient works of art. The beauty of holiness is in it--put
into it by the Spirit from the first, and yet its meaning was not
fully known until the Sun of Righteousness arose, and the Israel of
God, no longer kept in the outer court, entered through the rent
veil, and from the Holy of Holies, looked through the ancient record
on an illuminated heaven. Many hidden beauties burst into view upon
the pages of the Bible, when Faith's open eye looks through it on the
face of Jesus. One of these texts is now before us. . . . The first
clause tells how the guilt of sin is forgiven; the second, how the
power of sin is subdued. Solomon unites the two constituent elements
of the sinner's deliverance in the same order in which his father
experienced them: "I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy
commandments" (Ps. cxix. 166). It is when iniquity is purged by free
grace that men practically depart from evil. . . . Mercy and truth
meet in the Mediator. In Christ the fire meets the water without
drying it up: the water meets the fire without quenching it.--_Arnot._
By iniquity God and men are severed, and never can iniquity be
pardoned until God and man meet again. To procure this meeting there
must be a meeting of mercy and truth, of mercy in God and truth in
man. And these do call the one for the other. The mercy of God being
ready to forgive iniquity, calleth for truth in man to confess
iniquity; the truth of man being ready to confess his iniquity
calleth for the mercy of God to pardon his iniquity. Now these two
readily concurring, God and man are rejoined, and by their reunion
iniquity is purged. But then there must follow a departing from
iniquity. . . . For iniquity, forgiven and not forsaken, doubleth the
iniquity both in man's guilt and God's wrath. Wherefore, let the
mercy of the Lord breed a fear in thee, and let the truth of thy
repentance appear, as well in shunning iniquity as in forsaking of
it.--_Jermin._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 7.
PLEASING GOD.
+I. There are times when men's ways do not please the Lord.+ _The
ways of the ungodly do not at any time please the Lord._ Because they
have no sympathy with His laws, and are at variance with His
character. _"God is not in all their thoughts"_ (Psalm x. 4), and it
is impossible for God to be pleased with the ways of them who do not
think Him worth thinking about. A man must forsake his own ways and
come into God's ways before his ways can please the Lord. _The ways
of a good man do not at all times please the Lord._ They sometimes
stray from the royal road--the highway of righteousness--and get into
bye-paths, and thus bring down upon themselves the displeasure of
their God. David, though in the main a "man after God's own heart,"
more than once walked in paths that were displeasing to the Lord, and
several incidents in his life teach us plainly that some ways of a
godly man may be very contrary to the Divine mind.
+II. But God can be pleased by a man's ways.+ Those who strive to
conform to our desires--who are in sympathy with our minds--naturally
yield us pleasure. And a good man's desire is to conform his ways to
the Will of God--he is in sympathy with the mind of God, and his life
is the outcome of that sympathy. Therefore he can yield pleasure to
the Eternal. If the Creator, in looking upon the inanimate works of
His hands, pronounces them "good" (Gen. i. 31) when He sees them
fulfilling the design of their creation, how much more good in His
sight is it when a moral and responsible creature who has power to
turn out of the path ordained for him seeks patiently to continue in
well-doing notwithstanding all the temptations he has to encounter.
+III. The consequence upon men's minds of thus giving pleasure to the
Divine mind.+ The way of pleasing the Lord promotes "favour and a
good understanding in the sight of God and man" (chap. iii. 4). He
whose aim is to please God will desire and strive to live at peace
with men. And in cases where his godliness provokes the enmity of the
ungodly, God, by His overruling Providence, often directly interferes
on his behalf. He did so in the case of Jacob and Laban, in that of
Joseph and his brethren, etc.
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
The doctrine of this verse, stands in apparent contradiction to
2 Tim. iii. 12. The truth seems to be that neither of the passages is
to be taken _universally._ The peace possessed by those who please
God does not extend so far as to exempt them from having enemies, and
though all godly men must be persecuted, yet none are persecuted at
all times. The passage from Timothy may, therefore, refer to the
native enmity which true godliness is certain to excite, and the
proverb to the Divine control over it.--_A. Fuller._
There would be more sunlight in the believer's life if he could leave
the dull negative fear of judgment far behind as a motive of action,
and bound forward into the glad positive, a hopeful effort to please
God. . . . This is one of the two principles that stand together in
the Word, and act together in the Divine administration. Its
counterpart and complement is, "If any man would live godly in Christ
Jesus, he must suffer persecution.". . . Both are best; neither could
be wanted. If the principle that goodness exposes to persecution
prevailed everywhere and always, the spirit would fail before Him and
the souls that He has made. Again, if the principle that goodness
conciliates the favour of the world prevailed everywhere and always,
no discipline would be done, and the service of God would degenerate
into mercenary self-interest. . . . A beautiful balance of opposites
is employed to produce one grand result. . . . A Christian in the
world is like a human body in the sea--there is a tendency to sink
and a tendency to swim. A very small force in either direction will
turn the scale. Our Father in heaven holds the elements of nature and
the passions of men at His own disposal. His children need not fear,
for He keeps the balance in His own hands.--_Arnot._
If it is manifest that God makes Himself known, bestowing blessings
on a man, there lies in this a power of conviction which disarms his
most bitter opponents, excepting only those who have in selfishness
hardened themselves.--_Delitzsch._
Whatsoever a man's ways are, it is part of every man's intention to
please howsoever; it is the object that maketh the difference. All
men strive to please, but some to please themselves, some to please
other men, and some few to please the Lord. . . . The last is--1. _A
duty whereunto we stand bound by many obligations._ He is our Master,
our Captain, our Father, our King. He is no honest servant that will
not strive to please his master. And he is no generous soldier who
will not strive to please his general. And that son hath neither
grace nor good nature in him that will not strive to please his
father, and he is no loyal subject that will not strive to please his
lawful sovereign. And yet there may be a time when all those
obligations may cease, for if it be their pleasure that we should do
something that lawfully we may not, we must disobey, though we
displease. But we can have no colour of plea for refusing to do the
pleasure of our heavenly Lord and Master, in anything whatsoever;
inasmuch as we are sure nothing will please Him but what is just and
right. With what a forehead, then, can any of us challenge from Him
either wages as servants, or stipends as soldiers, or provision as
sons, or protection as subjects, if we be not careful in every
respect to frame ourselves so as to please Him? 2. _It is our wisdom,
too: in respect of the great benefits we shall reap thereby._ There
is one great benefit expressed in the text, and the scope of those
words is to instruct us, that the fairest and likeliest way to
procure peace with men is to order our ways so as to please the
Lord. . . . The favour of God and the favour of men are often joined
together in the Scriptures as if the one were consequent of the
other. See Luke ii. 52; Prov. iii. 3, 4; Rom. xiv. 18, etc. . . . But
it may be objected that sundry times when a man's ways are right, and
therefore pleasing to God, his enemies are nothing less, if not
perhaps much more, enraged against him than formerly. . . . Sundry
considerations may be of use to us in the difficulty, as, first, if
God have not yet made our enemies to be at peace with us, yet it may
be He will do it hereafter. Neither is it unlikely that we do not
walk with an even foot, and by a straight line, but tread away in
something or other which displeaseth God, and for which He suffereth
their enmity to continue. . . . Or if He do not presently make our
enemies to be at peace with us, yet if He teach us to profit by their
enmity, in exercising our faith and patience, in quickening us unto
prayer, etc., is it not in every way, and incomparably better? Will
any wise man tax Him with a breach of promise, who, having promised a
pound of silver, giveth a talent of gold? Or who can truly say that
that man is not as good as his word who is apparently much better
than his word?--_Bp. Sanderson._
It is our peace with God that maketh Him to make our enemies to be at
peace with us, and it is our enmity against God's enemies that maketh
God to be at peace with us. Now, the enemies of God are the sins of
men, and if we be in a continual war with those, then do our ways
please God. Then it is that He is ready to please us, when our ways
please Him. Neither is He hard to please--a willingness, a desire to
please, is accepted by Him. He looks not--He requireth not--that we
should do exactly all that is contained in His commandments, but if
we go about to please Him--if we put ourselves carefully in the
way--then do our ways please Him. And then will He give us that
glorious victory over our enemies which is above all others. For to
subdue our enemies is but to make ourselves happy in their misery;
but to make our enemies at peace with us is a victory for God's hand,
and giveth man a double triumph, as well over the hatred as the power
of our enemies.--_Jermin._
The subject of verse 8 is substantially the same as that of chap.
xv. 6 and 17. See Homiletics on page 405, etc.
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
"Better," for the tranquility of conscience, for the present
enjoyment of this life, and for the life to come. In chap. xv. 16, we
are warned against gain without religion, in chap. xv. 17, against
gain without _love to our neighbour:_ here, against gain without
_right.--Fausset._
Abraham would not take to himself of the spoils of Sodom so much as
the value of a shoe-latchet, that it might never be said in after
times that the king of Sodom had made Abraham rich; so neither will
any godly man that hath learned the art of contentation, suffer a
penny of the gain of ungodliness to mingle with the rest of his
estate, that the devil may not be able to upbraid him with it
afterwards to his shame, as if he had contributed something towards
the increasing thereof.--_Bishop Sanderson._
A _little_ that is in man's own is better than a _great deal_ that is
another body's. Now that which a man hath with _righteousness_ is his
own, for there can be no better title than that which righteousness
maketh. But that which thou hast _without right_ cannot be thine,
howsoever thou mayest account it, or others may call it. Possession
may be a great point in human laws, but it is nothing in God's law;
the want of right overthroweth whatsoever else may be said. Tis true,
thou mayest have quiet possession on earth, but there be adversaries
that do implead the unrighteousness at God's judgment bar, where they
are sure last to be cast, and where themselves will give the verdict
which the wise man here doth.--_Jermin._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 9.
MAN PROPOSES, GOD DISPOSES.
+I. This is a fact of national and individual history.+ In both
inspired and uninspired records we meet with abundant confirmations
of this truth. There is no more striking illustration of it than in
the life of Joseph. He leaves his father's house, as he supposes, for
a few days, little dreaming that he is traversing a path by which he
will never return. He only purposes to find his brethren, and "see if
it is well with them, and bring his father word again." But God is
then directing his steps into a far-off land--into slavery, to a
prison, and through both to a throne. So the shepherd boy of
Bethlehem sets out with the unambitious intention of carrying
supplies to his brethren, and of seeing how the battle is likely to
go, and becomes himself the central figure in the camp, and the hero
of his nation. And David's predecessor goes in search of his father's
asses, and finds a crown and a kingdom at the end of his journey.
Cromwell, despairing of enjoying liberty in England, planned to make
a home in America, and, it is said, actually went on board a vessel
which was about to sail. But God, using as an instrument the man to
whose throne he was to succeed, directed his steps in another
direction, and being forbidden to quit the country, he becomes not
only England's deliverer, but a great and powerful ruler, whose
influence was felt throughout Europe. Clive went out to India as a
clerk, because he had no prospects of getting a living at home, and
lays the foundation of our Indian empire. And there is hardly a man
living who, if he reflects upon his past life, cannot remember
passages in his own history which confirm the truth of the text. He
makes certain plans, and purposes to accomplish certain designs, and
the result of his doings is quite different from his intentions, or
leads him to a place, or a position, or into relationships which were
entirely out of his calculation when he "devised his way."
+II. This is a law which must be in operation till the end of time.+
Unexpected events must be the outcome of man's plans and purpose,
because he is finite and very short-sighted, and there is an Infinite
and Omniscient Ruler of the universe, who comprehends in His plan of
the universe all the plans of His creatures, and in His plan
concerning every man all that man's devices and deeds. "God professes
in His Word," says Dr. Bushnell, "to have purposes pre-arranged for
all events; to govern by a plan which is from eternity even, and
which, in some proper sense, comprehends everything. And what is this
but another way of conceiving that God has a definite place and plan
adjusted for every human being? And without such a plan, He could not
even govern the world intelligently, or make a proper universe of the
created system; for it becomes a universe only in the grant unity of
reason which includes it, otherwise it were only a jumble of
fortuities without counsel, end, or law." This being so, a man can
rejoice in the truth that "The Lord directs his steps"--that the
events of his life are not the outcome of chance, but are all under
the control of a supremely wise and benevolent King and Father. Not
that God's foreknowledge is the cause of man's actions, but that
seeing He must know what shall come to pass, nothing takes Him by
surprise, and therefore nothing finds Him unprepared to arrange all a
man's affairs after the counsel of His Own Will. Nothing happens
without His permission; no good thing comes to a man's life without
His instigation and co-operation, and, if a man is willing to yield
himself to His guidance, He will not only direct his steps, but
direct them so as to further that man's true well-being--will make
"all things work together for good" to him (Rom. viii. 28). The fact
here declared will redound to a man's eternal gain or loss according
to the attitude which he takes towards God. "There is then, I
conclude, a definite and proper end, or issue, for ever man's
existence; an end which to the heart of God is the good intended for
him, or for which he was intended; that which he is privileged to
become; called to become, ought to become; that which God will assist
him to become, save by his own fault. Every human soul has a complete
and perfect plan cherished for it in the heart of God--a Divine
biography marked out which it enters into life to live. This life,
rightly unfolded, will be a complete and beautiful whole, an
experience led on by God and unfolded by His secret nurture, as the
tree and the flowers, by the secret nurture of the world; a drama
cast in the mould of a perfect art, with no part wanting; a Divine
study for the man himself, and for others; a study that shall for
ever unfold, in wondrous beauty, the love and faithfulness of God;
great in its conception, great in the Divine skill by which it is
shaped; above all, great in the momentous and glorious issues it
prepares. What a thought is this for every human being to cherish!
What dignity does it add to life! What support does it bring to the
trials of life! What instigations does it add to send us onward in
everything that constitutes our excellence! We live in the Divine
thought. We fill a place in the great everlasting plan of God's
intelligence. We never sink below His care--never drop out of His
counsel. But there is, I must add, a single and very important
qualification. Things all serve their uses, and never break out of
their place. They have no power to do it. Not so with us. We are
able, as free beings, to refuse the place and duties God appoints;
which, if we do, then we sink into something lower and less worthy of
us. That highest and best condition for which God designed us is no
more possible. . . . And yet, as that was the best thing possible for
us in the reach of God's original counsel, so there is a place
designed for us now, which is the next best possible. God calls us
now to the best thing left, and will do so till all good possibility
is narrowed down and spent. And then, when He cannot use us any more
for our own good, He will use us for the good of others--an example
of the misery and horrible desperation to which any soul must come
when all the good ends, and all the holy callings of God's friendly
and fatherly purpose are exhausted. Or it may be now, that, remitting
all other plans and purposes in our behalf, He will henceforth use
us--wholly against our will--to be the demonstration of His justice
and avenging power before the eyes of mankind, saying over us, as He
did over Pharaoh in the day of His judgments, 'Even for this same
purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show My power in thee,
and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth.'
Doubtless He had other and more general plans to serve in this bad
man, if only he could have accepted such; but, knowing his certain
rejection of these, God turned His mighty counsel in him wholly on
the use to be made of him as a reprobate. How many Pharaohs in common
life refuse every other use God will make of them, choosing only to
figure, in their small way, as reprobates, and descending, in that
manner, to a fate that painfully mimics his."--(_Bushnell._)
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
The thought of the first verse, coming to be repeated, this versatile
sentence-maker calls it back with different scenery. _"The answer"_
or _"decree of a tongue"_ (ver. 1) is one pregnant act, _the "step"
of a foot_ is another. Both may make a man or ruin him, for this
world, or that which is to come. The critical thing, in either case,
is controlled by the Almighty. . . . _"Heart,"_ more intellectual
than the English _heart. "Devises"_ too intellectual for our
emotional nature. It means _studies,_ or _deeply meditates._ The
sinner really reflects upon his future wisdoms. Alas! they are too
future! And when the future come, he _"plants," "sets firm his
step,"_ quite differently from what he had decreed.--_Miller._
The doctrine of Providence is not like the doctrine of the
Trinity--to be received by faith. Experience gives a demonstrable
stamp of evidence--even in all the minutiæ of circumstances, which
form the parts and pieces of the Divine plan.--_Bridges._
It _must_ be so. If there is a God at all it cannot be otherwise. It
were the height of irrationality as well as impiety for a moment to
question it--to imagine the contrary possible. How otherwise could
God govern the world? Were not all human schemes under supreme and
irresistible control, what could become of the certainty of the
Divine?--_Wardlaw._
When it is said that a man's heart deviseth his way but the Lord
directeth his steps, we must not think that the purpose of the
creature is condemned as an impertinence. It is an essential element
of the plan. Neither human purposes, the material on which God
exercises His sovereign control, nor the control which He exercises
on that material could be wanted. If there were no room for the
devices of men's hearts, providence would disappear, and grim hate,
the leaden creed that crushes Eastern nations in the dust, would come
in its stead. If, on the other hand, these devices are left to fight
against each other for their objects without being subjected all to
the will of a Living One, faith flees from the earth and the reign of
Atheism begins. The desires of human hearts, and the efforts of human
hands, do go into the processes of providence, and constitute the
material upon which the Almighty works. When God made men in His own
image, a new era was inaugurated and a new work begun. Hitherto, in
the government of this world, the Creator had no other elements to
deal with than matter and the instincts of brutes; but the moment
that man took his place on creation, a new and higher element was
introduced into its government. The sphere was enlarged and the
principle elevated. There was more room for the display of wisdom and
power. The will of intelligent moral beings being left free, and yet
as completely controlled as matter and laws, makes the Divine
government much more glorious than the mere management of a material
universe. For God's glory man was created, and that purpose will
stand; a glory to God man will be, willing or unwilling, fallen or
restored, throughout the course of time, and at its close. The
doctrine of Scripture regarding Providence neither degrades man, nor
inflates him. It does not make him a mere thing on the one hand, nor
a god on the other. It neither takes from him the attributes of
humanity, nor ascribes to him the attributes of Deity. It permits him
freely to propose, but leaves the ultimate disposal in a mightier
hand.--_Arnot._
The doctrine of the text--I. _Should correct immoderate care about
the future events of our life._ What means this mighty bustle and
stir--this restless perturbation of thought and care--as if all the
issues of futurity rested wholly on thy conduct? Something depends
upon thyself, and there is reason, therefore, for acting thy part
with prudence and attention. But upon a hand unseen it depends,
either to overturn thy projects, or to crown them with success,
therefore thine attention should never run into immoderate care.
II. _Should enforce moderation of mind in every state._ How little
ground the real situation of the most prosperous man affords for the
vain _elation_ of mind, for he is dependent every moment on the
pleasure of a superior. III. _Places the vanity and folly of sinful
plans in a very strong light._ The sinner has against him, first, the
general uncertainty which belongs to all the designs of men. And he
hath also engaged against himself one certain and formidable enemy.
IV. _That an interest in God's favour is far more important than all
the wisdom and ability of man._ In a world so full of uncertainty,
let us take pains to secure to ourselves one resting place, one
habitation that cannot be moved.--_Blair._
God having made man lord of the earth, He hath made him lord also of
the ways of the earth. He is not tied to this way or that way, but as
his heart deviseth, so he may go. And herein is the dignity of a man
above a beast. For that way must a beast go which he is driven: but
man, not driven by fate, or constellation, or any other necessity, as
master of himself, chooseth his own courses wherein to walk.
Notwithstanding, man is not without an overseer, a ruler, by whom his
steps are directed. The wicked chooseth an evil way, but God
directeth it to a good end. The good chooseth a good way, but it is
by God brought to a good issue.--_Jermin._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 10-15.
KINGS.
It is obvious that some of these proverbs as they stand in our
Authorised Version, do not admit of universal application in relation
to human monarchs. History and experience both contradict the
assertion that a "Divine sentence" is always, or has been generally,
in the lips of a human king, but if we understand the verse, as
Miller does (see his comment) as an application of the truth set
forth in the preceding verse and in verse 1, that God is behind and
above all the decrees of earthly potentates, we can at once admit the
fact and rejoice in it. Again, it cannot, alas! be said that as a
rule, "righteous lips are the delight of kings," or that "in the
light of the king's countenance is life." Many kings have been
themselves incarnations of iniquity, and have bestowed all their
favour upon men like themselves, and persecuted often to the death
those who have dared to tell them the truth. If this proverb admitted
of universal application, Ahab would not have sought to slay Elijah,
Jeremiah would not have been imprisoned by Zedekiah, and Herod would
not have put to death John the Baptist. And the favour of most of the
men who have sat upon the thrones of the world would have had no life
in it for some of their subjects. There has been a faithful few in
all the ages of the world to whom the favour of their wicked rulers
would have been very unlike "a cloud of the latter rain." But the
truths taught here are:--
+I. That a king ought to be God's prophet and viceregent upon the
earth.+ All painters have an ideal in their minds to which they
desire to attain in their handiwork. They must place before them the
highest model, if they would rise to anything like excellence. And
Solomon, as a great theoretic moralist, is here setting before
himself, and before all rulers, an ideal king. Kingship among men
ought to be a type and symbol of Divine kingship. The loyal obedience
which the majority of men have always been ready to yield to those
who they have regarded as their appointed rulers, has its root deep
down in the constitution of human nature--it is a prophecy of a need
which is only fully met in the rule of the true and perfect King of
men--that King whose right it is to reign, and who can do no wrong to
any of His subjects. "That was not an inconsiderable moment," says
Carlyle, "when wild armed men first raised their strongest aloft on
the buckler-throne, and, with clanging armour and hearts said
solemnly, Be thou our acknowledged strongest (well named King,
_Kön-ning,_ Canning, or Man that was Able), what a symbol shone now
for them--significant with the destinies of the world! A symbol of
true guidance in return for loving obedience; properly, if he knew
it, the prime want of man. A symbol which might be called sacred, for
is there not, in reverence for what is better than we, an
indestructible sacredness?" And when a king realises what idea he
embodies, and strives to fulfil worthily the duties of his high
calling, and in proportion as he does so, he is a representative of
God to men. Then he will have a _Divine sentence_ in his mouth
because he will be a truth-speaker. His lips will be a reflection of
his character. Being a man of truth, he cannot do other than speak
the truth. He will be able in a limited sense to use the words of His
Divine Ideal, and say, _"To this end was I born, and for this cause
came I into the world, that I should bear witness of the truth"_
(John xviii. 37). And as all truth and justice is from God (ver. 11),
he who is a truth-speaker--he from whose lips come only just
decisions, utters a "Divine sentence"--is a representative of Him
whose "is a just weight and balance," whose "work are all the weights
of the bag." To such an one it will be "an abomination to commit
wickedness"--any kind of iniquity will be detested by him. He will
not--he cannot--be a sinless man; the desires and intentions of every
good man are always beyond his deeds--he can always say, "To will is
present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not"
(Rom. vii. 18), but he will not commit sin because he loves it. Such
a king will be a real benefactor to his nation by exalting the true
and the good, and so blessing all. It is a blessing for all
men--whether they be good or bad--when the best men in the nation are
in the fore-front--when the righteous fill the highest positions in
the State. And a true king will gladly avail himself of the services
of men of "righteous lips," and so will be a source of blessing to
all his people. The "latter rain" which refreshes the thirsty earth
after a long season of drought lets its life-giving drops fall upon
the parched leaves of the humblest weed as well as upon the stately
oak. And the influence of a wise and godly monarch is beneficial to
all classes of his subjects from the highest to the lowest. All such
are types--dim foreshadowings--of that _"king who reigns in
righteousness and who is as an hiding place from the wind, and a
covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as a
shadow of a great rock in a weary land"_ (Isa. xxxii. 1, 2).
+II. That the stability of a throne is in proportion to the moral
excellence of him who sits upon it.+ The power that men have over
other men is lasting in proportion as it has its origin in character.
The father's kingship over his children is immutable in proportion to
his goodness. If his rule has its foundation only in his position,
his children will not be slow to shake it off as they reach manhood;
but if it is founded upon his godliness, they will be compelled to
acknowledge it to the day of his death and even beyond it. His throne
in his family is "established by righteousness," the consciences of
his children consent to his right to reign among them and over them.
The throne of the universe is established by righteousness. _"Thy
throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of Thy kingdom is a
right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness;
therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness
above thy fellows"_ (Psalm xlv. 6, 7). This King of Righteousness is
now enthroned in the affections and consciences of myriads of His
subjects, and He who rules men's _hearts_ has set his throne upon a
firm foundation. And there will come a day when every creature will
be compelled by his conscience to yield to _"Him that sitteth upon
the throne,"_ the right to reign over them for ever (Rev. v. 13),
because they will feel that all his ways are and ever have been
_"just and true"_ (Rev. xv. 3). If we read the history of the past or
look around us now, we find this truth abundantly illustrated.
Thrones which have been backed up by mighty armies, and whose
occupants have for a few short years been the arbiters of the
destinies of millions, have been overturned in a few weeks. And we
have but to look at the steps by which such men came to power to find
a reason for their fall. None can doubt from the experience of past
ages, and from the very constitution of men, that the thrones of the
present are founded upon a rock or upon sand, in proportion as those
who sit upon them take as their model the king who _"judges His
people with righteousness and the poor with judgment"_ (Psalm
lxxii. 2).
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
Verse 10. "A Divine sentence" may be understood either as to its
_character,_ or as to its _authoritative effect._ If taken in the
former sense, it means a sentence according to perfect _equity;_ if
in the latter, the idea is, that as every judgment or "sentence" of
God is _decisive and effectual,_ so that the execution of it cannot
be evaded or resisted, such, in measure, is the case with the
sentence of kings among men, and in the general idea of a Divine
sentence may fairly be included both character and efficiency--both
equity and power. When understood of _equity,_ the latter part of
the verse, according to the principle of Hebrew parallelisms will be
a kind of counterpart or echo to the former, and when understood of
_power,_ the verse might be rendered--"A Divine sentence is in the
lips of the king; _let not_ his mouth transgress in judgment." In
proportion to the authoritative and efficacious nature of his
sentence, ought he to see to it that the sentence be right. He should
weigh well his decision ere he pronounces it, seeing it involves
consequences so certain, immediate, and important. And the principle
of this lesson applies to all in situations of authority and
influence, whether more private or more public.--_Wardlaw._
The glaring fact of what Solomon avows in verse 9 can be seen in the
instance of _"a king."_ The word of a king can ruin France, and
change the whole system of the world. How, possibly, could God
govern, unless He could a king? Eternal ages will not get over the
edict of a prince, and the banded universe will feel its differences.
Must not God control that word? Our passage answers that He does. He
may be George III. of the low forehead; his speech is shaped
omnisciently. He may be as treacherous as Charles; he does not betray
by a hair the counsel of the Almighty. This is a grand thought. A
poor princeling may be governed by a girl, and yet, though his
utterance might move the globe, we need have no fear. There is _"a
divination," i.e.,_ "an oracle," behind _"his lips."_ He says what
God pleases. And though _"his mouth"_ may have the very treachery of
the cup, it has no treachery--even to a grain--to the plans of the
All Wise.--_Miller._
It cannot be denied but that there is a nearer reference between God
and His immediate deputies, the kings of the earth, than any other
persons. He that maketh them kings maketh Himself to be their
counsel. But then they must make Him the president of their
council.--_Jermin._
For Homiletics on verse 11, considered by itself, see on chap. xi. 1,
page 190.
Verse 11. The proposition expresses an ownership in Jehovah as the
first cause, for, like agriculture (Ecclus. vii. 15), God instituted
weights and measures, as an indispensable ordinance and instrument in
just business intercourse.--_Zöckler._
Weights and measures, as the invisible and spiritual means by which
material possessions are estimated and determined for man, according
to their value, are holy unto the Lord, a copy of His law in the
outer world, taken up by Himself into His sanctuary; and, therefore,
as His work, to be regarded as holy also by men.--_Von Gerlach._
The heathen poet Hesiod says, "God gave justice to men."--_Fausset._
He is not only just, but justice _belongs_ to Him. He is not only
partly just, but _"His work"_ (and we see at a glance that God's
_work_ is the total universe) is in its very self considered, "all
the stones of the bag." _Stones,_ better weights than iron, because
not altering by rust. _Bag,_ in which the stone weights were carried,
in the peripatetic barter of the old tradespeople. No difficulty
should be had in understand all of which the sentence is capable.
God's _work_ is justice and justice is His _work._ The very ideas of
equity spring out of the Eternal Mind. If all this were not so how
could God govern the creation, for _"It is an abomination to kings to
commit wickedness,"_ etc. (ver. 12).--_Miller._
The Jews are said to have kept their standard weights and measures
_in the sanctuary._ The fact might arise from the particularity of
the law, and might operate as a remembrancer of the righteousness of
Him by whom the law was given, and the weights and measures
fixed. . . . All adulteration of them was therefore a _sacrilege._ It
was not cheating men merely, but defrauding Jehovah, changing what He
had fixed. . . . And from the connection in which the words are here
introduced they lead us to observe that while kings are called up to
"do justly" themselves in their whole administration and in every
department of it, it is, at the same time, a most important part of
their official duty to promote among their subjects, to the utmost of
their power, the principles and the practice of equity between man
and man.--_Wardlaw._