Psalm cxix. 89-96. For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.
Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the
earth, and it abideth. They continue this day according to thine
ordinances: for all are thy servants. Unless thy law had been my
delight, I should then have perished in mine affliction. I will
never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me. I
am thine, save me; for I have sought thy precepts. The wicked have
waited for me to destroy me: but I will consider thy testimonies.
I have seen an end of all perfection; but thy commandment is
exceeding broad.
The Psalmist is in great trouble. He does not know whom to trust,
what to expect next, whom to look to. Everything seems failing and
changing round him. His psalm was most probably written during the
Babylonish captivity, at a time when all the countries and kingdoms
of the east were being destroyed by the Chaldean armies.
Then, he says, Be it so. If everything else changes, God cannot.
If everything else fails, God's plans cannot. He can rest on the
thought of God; of his goodness, his faithfulness, order,
providence. God is governing the world righteously and orderly.
Whatever disorder there is on earth, there is none in heaven. God's
word endures for ever there.
Then he looks on the world round him; all is well ordered--seasons,
animals, sun, and stars abide. They continue this day according to
God's ordinances. The unchangeableness of nature is a comfort to
him; for it is a token of the unchangeablenes of God who made it.
Now, I do beg you to think carefully over this verse; because it is
quite against the very common notion that, because the earth was
cursed for Adam's sake, therefore it is cursed now; that because it
was said to him, Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee,
therefore that holds good now. It is not so, my friends; neither is
there, as far as I know, in any part whatsoever of Scripture, any
mention of Adam's curse continuing to our day. St. John, in the
Revelations, certainly says, 'And there shall be no more curse.'
But if you will read the Revelation, you will find that what he
plainly refers to is to the fearful curses, the plagues, the vials
of wrath, as he calls them, which were to be poured out on the
earth; and then to cease when the New Jerusalem came down from
heaven.
St. Paul, again, knows nothing about any such curse upon the earth.
He says that death came into the world by Adam's sin: but that must
be understood only of man, and the world of man; and for this simple
reason, that we know, without the possibility of doubt, that animals
died in this world just as they do now, not only thousands, but
hundreds of thousands of years before man appeared on earth.
What St. Paul says of the creation, in one of his most glorious
passages, is this--not that it is cursed, but that it groans and
travails continually in the pangs of labour, trying to bring forth;
trying to bring forth something better than itself; to develop, and
rise from good to better, and from that to better still; till all
things become perfect in a way which we cannot conceive, but which
God has ordained before the foundation of the world.
Besides, as a fact, the earth does not bring forth thorns and
thistles to us, but good grain, and fruitful crops, and an abundant
return for our labour, if we choose to till the ground.
And wise men, who study God's works, can find no curse at all upon
the earth, nor sign of a curse, neither in plants nor beasts, no,
nor in the smallest gnat in the air. The more they look into the
wonders of God's world, the more they find it true that there is
order everywhere, beauty everywhere, fruitfulness everywhere,
usefulness everywhere--that all things continue as at the beginning;
that, as the psalmist says in another place, God has made them fast
for ever and ever, and given them a law which cannot be broken. And
if you will look at Genesis viii. 21, 22, you will find from the
plain words of Scripture itself, that Adam's curse, whatever it was,
was taken off after the flood, 'And the Lord smelled a sweet savour:
and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground
any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil
from his youth; neither will I again smite any more everything
living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seed-time and
harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night
shall not cease.'
Therefore, my friends, open your eyes and your hearts freely to the
message which God is sending you, in summer and winter, in seed-time
and in harvest, in sunshine and in storm; that God is not a hard
God, a revengeful God, a God of curses, who is extreme to mark what
is done amiss, and keepeth his anger for ever. No: but that he is
your Father in heaven, who hateth nothing that he has made, and
whose mercy is over all his works; who made heaven and earth, the
sea, and all that therein is; who keepeth truth for ever; who
helpeth them to right that suffer wrong; who feedeth the hungry; a
God who feeds the birds of the air, though they sow not, neither do
they reap, nor gather into barns; and who clothes the grass of the
field, which toils not, neither doth it spin; and who will much much
more clothe and feed you, to whom he has given reason,
understanding, and the power of learning his laws, the rules by
which this world of his is made and works, and of turning them to
your own profit in rational and honest labour.
And think, my friends, if the old Psalmist, before Christ came,
could believe all this, and find comfort in it, much more ought we.
Shame to us if we do not. I had almost said, we deny Christ, if we
do not. For who said those last words concerning the birds of the
air, and the grass of the field? Who told us that we have not
merely a Master or a Judge in heaven, but a Father in heaven? Who
but that very Word of God, whom the Psalmist saw dimly and afar off?
He knew that the Word of God abode for ever in heaven: but he knew
not, as far as we can tell, that that same Word would condescend to
be made flesh, and dwell among men that we might see his glory, full
of grace and truth. The old Psalmist knew that God's word was full
of truth, and that gave him comfort in the wild and sad times in
which he lived; but he did not know--none of the Old Testament
prophets knew,--how full God's word was of grace also. That he was
so full of love, condescension, pity, generosity, so full of longing
to seek and save all that was lost, to set right all that was wrong,
in one word again, so full of grace, that he would condescend to be
born of the Virgin Mary, suffer under Pontius Pilate, to be
crucified, dead and buried, that he might become a faithful High
Priest for us, full of understanding, fellow-feeling, pity, love,
because he has been tempted in all things like as we are, yet
without sin.
My friends, was not the old Psalmist a Jew, and are not we Christian
men? Then, if the old Psalmist could trust God, how much more
should we? If he could find comfort in the thought of God's order,
how much more should we? If he could find comfort in the thought of
his justice, how much more should we? If he could find comfort in
the thought of his love, how much more should we? Yes; let us be
full of troubles, doubts, sorrows; let times be uncertain, dark, and
dangerous; let strange new truths be discovered, which we cannot, at
first sight, fit into what we know to be true already: we can still
say, 'I will not fear, though the earth be moved, and the hills be
carried into the midst of the sea.' For the word of God abideth for
ever in heaven, even Jesus Christ, who is the Light of the world and
the Life of men. To him all power is given in heaven and earth. He
is set on the throne, judging right, and ministering true judgment
among the people. All things, as the Psalmist says, come to an end.
All men's plans, men's notions, men's systems, men's doctrines, grow
old, wear out, and perish.
The old order changes, giving place to the new:
But God fulfils himself in many ways.
For men are not ruling the world. Christ is ruling the world, and
his commandment is exceeding broad. His laws are broad enough for
all people, all countries, all ages; and strangely as they may seem
to work, in the eyes of us short-sighted timorous human beings,
still all is going well, and all will go well; for Christ reigns,
and will reign, till he has put all enemies under his feet, and God
be all in all.