In accordance with the warlike tone of the whole psalm, our text
describes the subjects as an army. That military metaphor comes out more
clearly when we attach the true meaning to the words, 'in the day of Thy
power.' The word rendered, and rightly rendered, 'power,' has the same
ambiguity which that word has in the English of the date of our
translation, and for a century later, as you may find in Shakespeare and
Milton, who both used it in the sense of 'army.' Singularly enough we do
not employ 'powers' in that meaning, but we do another word which means
the same thing--and talk of 'forces,' meaning thereby 'troops.' By the
way, what a melancholy sign it is of the predominance of that infernal
military spirit, that it should have so leavened language, that the
'forces' of a nation means its soldiers, its embattled energies turned
to the work of destruction. But the phrase is so used here. 'The day of
Thy power' is not a mere synonym for 'the time of Thy might,' but means
specifically 'the day of Thine army,' that is, 'the day when Thou dost
muster Thy forces and set them in array for the war.'
The King is going forth to conquest. But He goes not alone. Behind Him
come His faithful followers, all pressing on with willing hearts and
high courage. Then, to begin with, the warfare which He wages is one not
confined to Him. Alone He offers the sacrifice by which He atones; but,
as we shall see, we too are priests. He rules, and His servants rule
with Him. But ere that time comes, they are to be joined with Him in the
great warfare by which He wins the earth for Himself. 'As Captain of the
Lord's host am I now come.' He wins no conquests for Himself; and now
that He is exalted at God's right hand, He wins none by Himself. We have
to do His work, we have to fight His battles as good soldiers of Jesus
Christ. By power derived from Him, but wielded by ourselves; with
courage inspired by Him, but filling our hearts; not as though He needed
us, but inasmuch as He is pleased to use us, we have to wage warfare for
and to please Him who hath chosen us to be soldiers. The Captain of our
salvation sits at the right hand of God, expecting till His enemies be
made His footstool. He has bidden us to keep the field and fight the
fight. From His height He watches the conflict--nay, He is with us while
we wage it. So long as we strike for Him, so long is it His power that
teaches our hands to war. Our King's flag is committed to our care; but
we are not left to defend it alone. In indissoluble unity, the King and
the subjects, the Chief and His vassals, the Captain and His soldiers,
are knit together--and wheresoever His people are, in all the danger and
hardships of the long struggle, there is He, to keep their heads in the
day of battle, and make them more than conquerors.
Then, again, that warfare is shared in by all the subjects. It is a levy
_en masse_--an armed nation. The whole of the people are embodied for
the battle. It is not the work of a select few, but of every one who
calls Christ 'Lord,' to be His faithful servant and soldier. Whatever
varieties of occupation may be set us by Him, one purpose is to be kept
in view and one end to be effected by them all. Every Christian man is
bound to strive for the reduction of all human hearts under Christ's
dominion. The tasks may be different, but the result should be one. Some
of us have to toil in the trenches, some of us to guard the camp, some
to lead the assault, some to stay by the stuff and keep the
communications open. Be it so. We are all soldiers, and He alone has to
determine our work. We are responsible for the spirit of it, He for its
success.
Again, there are no _mercenaries_ in these ranks, no pressed men. The
soldiers are all volunteers. 'Thy people shall be willing.' Pause for a
moment upon that thought.
Dear brethren! there are two kinds of submission and service. There is
submission because you cannot help it, and there is submission because
you like it. There is a sullen bowing down beneath the weight of a hand
which you are too feeble to resist, and there is a glad surrender to a
love which it would be a pain not to obey. Some of us feel that we are
shut in by immense and sovereign power which we cannot oppose. And yet,
like some raging rebel in a dungeon, or some fluttering bird in a cage,
we beat ourselves, all bruised and bloody, against the bars in vain
attempts at liberty, alternating with fits of cowed apathy as we slink
into a corner of our cell. Some of us, thank God! feel that we are
enclosed on every side by that mighty Hand which none can resist, and
from which we would not stray if we could, and we joyfully hide beneath
its shelter, and gladly obey when it points. Constrained obedience is no
obedience. Unless there be the glad surrender of the will and heart,
there is no surrender at all. God does not want compulsory submission.
He does not care to rule over people who are only crushed down by
greater power. He does not count that those serve who sullenly acquiesce
because they dare not oppose. Christ seeks for no pressed men in His
ranks. Whosoever does not enlist joyfully is not reckoned as His. And
the question comes to us, brethren!--What is my relation to that loving
Lord, to that Redeemer King? Do I submit because His love has won my
heart, and it would be a pang not to serve Him; or do I submit because I
know Him strong, and am afraid to refuse? If the former, all is well; He
calls us 'not servants but friends.' If the latter, all is wrong; we are
not subjects, but enemies.
There is another idea involved in this description. The soldiers are not
only marked by glad obedience, but that obedience rests upon the
sacrifice of themselves. The word here rendered 'willing' is employed
throughout the Levitical law for 'freewill offerings.' And if we may
venture to bring that reference in here, it carries us a step farther in
this characterisation of the army. This glad submission comes from
self-consecration and surrender. It is in that host as it was in the
army whose heroic self-devotion was chaunted by Deborah under her
palm-tree, 'The people willingly offered themselves.' Hence came
courage, devotion, victory. With their lives in their hands they flung
themselves on the foe, and nothing could stand against the onset of men
who recked not of themselves. There is one grand thing even about the
devilry of war--the transcendent self-abnegation with which, however
poor and unworthy may be the cause, a man casts himself away, 'what time
the foeman's line is broke.' The poorest, vulgarest, most animal natures
rise for a moment into something like nobility, as the surge of the
strong emotion lifts them to that height of heroism. Life is then most
glorious when it is given away for a great cause. That sacrifice is the
one noble and chivalrous element which gives interest to war--the one
thing that can be disentangled from its hideous associations, and can be
transferred to higher regions of life. That spirit of lofty consecration
and utter self-forgetfulness must be ours, if we would be Christ's
soldiers. Our obedience will then be glad when we feel the force of, and
yield to, that gentle, persuasive entreaty, 'I beseech you, brethren! by
the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice.'
There is 'one Sacrifice for sin for ever'--which never can be repeated,
nor exhausted, nor copied. And the loving, faithful acceptance of that
sacrifice of propitiation leads our hearts to the response of
thank-offering, the sacrifice and surrender of ourselves to Him who has
given Himself not only to, but for us. It cannot be recompensed, but it
may be acknowledged. Let us give ourselves to Christ, for He has died
for us. Let us give ourselves to Christ, for only in such surrender do
we truly find ourselves. Let us give ourselves to Christ, for such a
sacrifice makes all life fair and noble, and that altar sanctifies the
gift. Let us give ourselves to Christ, for without such sacrifice we
have no place in the host whom He leads to victory. 'Thy people shall be
willing offerings in the day of Thy power.'
Still further, another remarkable idea may be connected with this word.
By a natural transition, of which illustrations may be found in other
languages, it comes to mean '_free_,' and also '_noble_.' As, for
instance, it is used in the fifty-first Psalm, 'Uphold me with Thy
_free_ Spirit'--and in the forty-seventh, 'The _princes_ of the people
are gathered together.' And does not this shading of
significations--willing sacrifices, free, princely--remind us of another
distinctly evangelical principle, that the willing service which rests
upon glad consecration raises him who renders it to true freedom and
dominion? Every man enlisted in His body-guard is noble. The Prince's
servants are every other person's master. The King's livery exempts
from all other submission. As in the old Saxon monarchies, the monarch's
domestics were nobles, the men of Christ's household are ennobled
by their service. They who obey Him are free from every yoke of
bondage--'free indeed.' All things serve the soul that serves Christ.
'He hath made us kings unto God.'