MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.-Verses 1-4. BLESSINGS FROM THE REMEMBRANCE OF GOD'S COMMANDMENTS. I. The natural desire of a moral instructor. Every teacher desires that his pupil should remember his instructions, and unless that which has been given is remembered it is useless to carry him any further on. Memory holds a very important place in the formation of moral character. "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you" (1 Cor. xv. 1 and 2). Paul likewise exhorts his son Timothy by means of his memory (2 Tim. i. 6). See also Hebrews x. 32; 2 Pet. i. 15, iii. 1, etc. Solomon knew that his son could only profit by his counsel so long as he remembered it. II. When the memory does not retain moral teaching, it is a moral rather than an intellectual fault. "Let thine heart keep my commandments." We find it difficult to forget where we love. If a child loves his father, he is not likely to forget his words. Christ reminded his disciples that they did not "remember" because their hearts were hardened (Mark viii. 17, 18). III. When the heart keeps the Divine Word, mercy and truth will not forsake the character. Where God's precepts find a place of abode, there will likewise be found a merciful disposition towards men, and a truthful and sincere piety before God. If a tree has its roots in the waters, we know that its greenness will not fail: "its leaf shall not wither." The freshness and beauty of the foliage is the necessary outcome of its roots dwelling in the stream. The mercifulness and the truthfulness of a man's character will be in proportion to his affection for, and consequent retention of, the words of God. IV. The blessings which will accompany a remembrance of the Divine teaching. 1. Length of days. We may infer from this that, as a rule, long life is to be desired. The longer distance a pure river runs through a country, the greater the amount of blessing which it diffuses on its way to the ocean. The longer a man of "mercy and truth" lives, the more he is enabled to bless his fellowcreatures. A long life gives a man time to attain great knowledge of God, and thus enables him to glorify Him upon the earth. A long life is also to be desired because the peculiar experience of earth belongs to the present life only. When that is ended we have reason to believe that we shall enter upon an entirely new experience; that which belonged to earth will have passed away with our earthly life. It has often been remarked that a godly manner of life is favourable to length of days." Sin and anxious care tend to bring men to an early grave, while purity, and trust in a living and loving Father are promoters of bodily health. 2. Divine and human favour. The human ruler is favourable to those who make it their business to obey his commands. A wise and good father makes a difference in his treatment of those children who seek to please him and those who defy his authority. God is the Father, and consequently the rightful Ruler of men, and having made laws for the guidance of His children, it follows of necessity that those who seek to obey those laws must find favour with Him. He is in this sense a respecter of persons. He has respect to those who "have respect unto His commandments" (Psa. cxix. 6). Favour in the sight of man is also promised. The value of a man's favour depends upon a man's character. To find favour with some men would be to be known as an enemy of God (James iv. 4). It is written that Jesus increased "in favour with God and man (Luke ii. 52). But we know that He found little favour with the rulers of the Jews. Therefore, these words must be taken to refer to the favour of those whose favour is worth having. 3. Peace (Verse 2). Where the conscience and passions are at war there can be nothing but unrest, but when the conscience is reinforced by the Divine precepts, she rules, and the soul, as a consequence, enjoys peace. Peace must flow from the possession of Divine favour, and also from the consciousness of the good-will of good men. OUTLINES and suggesTIVE COMMENTS. Verse 1. Here we advance another step. Not only is it necessary to renounce and shun evil (i. 10) and to listen to the voice of Wisdom and go in quest of her (i. 20; ii. 1-4), but it is also requisite to hold her fast under trial and tribulation (ver. 11), and to practise her rules by love to God and man (verses 9, 27, 30).— Wordsworth. My law." He who made us knows what is good for us. Submission to His will is the best condition for humanity. Our own will leads to sin and misery. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. . . . Silently to forget God's law is a much more common thing amongst us than blasphemously to reject it.-Arnot. Where love makes the impression, care locks it up. Philo saith, "Thou forgettest God's law, because thou forgettest thyself." For didst thou remember thine own condition, how very nothing thou art, thou couldst not forget His law whose excellency exceedeth all things; and therefore to fasten His law in our hearts, God saith no more than that it is my law, as if the strength of that reason were sufficient to strike them into us not to be forgotten.-Jermin. We should be able to say to Wisdom as Cœnis did to her lady Antonia, "You need not, madame, bid me do your business, for I so remember your commands, as I need never be reminded of them."-Trapp. The mental faculties have a close relation and a mutual dependence upon each other. There are, without doubt, original diversities in the power of memory. But memory depends greatly on attention, and attention depends not less upon the interest which the mind feels on the subject. He who feels no interest will not attend, and he who does not attend will not remember.- Wardlaw. Verse 2. Length of days is the promise to the righteous-whether for earth or for heaven as their Father deems fittest for them. It itself, the ... promise, as regards this life, has no charm. But added forms the peace sunshine of the toilsome way.-Bridges. The original is "length of days and years of lives." They are lives which religion promiseth, one on earth, another in heaven: here such a long life as short days can make up, but there days shall be years there shall be but one day, lengthened into eternity.-Jermin. Where is the consistency of promising long life to wisdom! Where is the truth of such an assurance? But certain grammatical endings give us immediate signs of another interpretation. The verb "add" is masculine e; the words "law" and "commandments" are feminine. On the contrary, all are masculines among the nouns of the next clause. Unless there should be reason to do violence by an ungrammatical exception, the nouns should be the subjects rather than the objects of the verb. We translate therefore, "For length of days, and years of life, and prosperity, shall make thee greater.”—Miller. Such declarations are certainly not to be interpreted as a promise of long life in this world in every instance, as the result of obedience to God's commands. There are promises to Israel of their days being prolonged in the land which are greatly mistaken when interpreted of the life of individuals; and as pledging in every case its prolongation to all the good. Such passages relate to the continued possession of the land of promise by the people, if they, in their successive generations, continued to serve God.-Wardlaw. Simple duration of life in itself to Jewish mind, a great gift of God. "Years of life," i.e., of a life truly such, a life worth living, not the lingering struggle with pain and sickness (compare the use of life in Psalm xxx. 5, xliii. 8.-Plumptre. Verse 3. There was such a similitude of nature between the twins of love that at once they wept, and at once they smiled; they fell sick together, and they recovered jointly. Such are these twins of grace. In policy, mercy without truth is a sweet shower dropping upon barren sands, quite spilt, and no blessing following it; truth without mercy is extreme right and extreme injury. Consider them toward God and heaven. A faith of mere protestation without good works, such is truth without mercy, and all the integrity of the heathen, all the goodness that Socrates could teach, such is mercy without truth.Bishop Hacket. The neck is, in Solomon's writings, the organ and symbol of obedience. To bind God's law about the neck is not only to do it, but to rejoice in doing it; to put it on and exult in it as the fairest ornament.- Wordsworth. I. The matter to be recorded-mercy and truth. These two, meeting and kissing in the Mediator, constitute the revealed character of God Himself; and He desires to see, as it were, a miniature of His own likeness impressed upon His children. II. The tablet for receiving it-the human heart. The reference is obviously to the tables of stone. The tables were intended to be not a book only, but a type. An impress should be taken on our own hearts, that we may always have the will of God hidden within us. -Arnot. Let these graces be, as with God, in combination. The want of one buries the commendation of the other. "Such a one is merciful to the poor, but there is no truth in him." "Such a one is very just in his dealings, but he is as hard as a flint." Nor must these virtues be in occasional and temporary exercise. "Let them not forsake thee."-Bridges. Intimating-I. Their forsaking us is more than our forsaking them. Our forsaking them may come of our weakness, but their forsaking us comes of our wilfulness and hardness of heart in not entertaining them. II. It sets out the easiness of the loss of them through our corruption. III. It sets forth our great need of them. IV. It intimates our great care and pains needful for the retaining of them. They are easily lost, but hardly kept. A hawk must be well tamed before he is let fly, else he will return no more. These graces must be as carefully kept as providently gotten, like riches. And they must both be kept together, else mercy may lie to do good, and truth may reveal without canse what may do hurt. Therefore join both as God does (Ps. lxxxv. 10).-Francis Taylor. Mercy and truth are dear sisters, bles-ed companions in God, sweet companions in man. Mercy loveth truth, truth loveth mercy, God loveth both; and if man love himself, he will do so likewise.-Jermin. These words correspond to the two tables of the law. Benevolence is at the bottom of the command, "" Thou shalt love thy neighbour," and what is right is that great glory which we are to love in God.-Miller. Verse 4. In other words, "Thou shalt be favoured and truly prospered, God and man both bearing witness to thy well-directed efforts."-Stuart. He that shows mercy to men shall find mercy with God. . . . and men love to be dealt truly and mercifully with themselves, even though they deal not so with others; especially they that get good by our merciful and just dealing will favour us.Francis Taylor. This favour of God and men, i.e., not of all indiscriminately, but first and pre-eminently of the wise and devout, such as agree with God's judgment, is evidently in the view of the poet the highest and most precious of the multiform blessings of wisdom which he enumerates. What, however, is this favour of God and men but the being a true child of God, the belonging to the fellowship of God and His people, the co-citizenship in the kingdom of truth and blessedness? We stand here manifestly at the point at which the Old Testament doctrine of retributions predominantly earthly begin to be transformed into the supersensual or spiritual realistic doctrine of the New Testament (Matt. v. 10-12; xix. 28-30).-Lange's Commentary. This promise is all one with that of the Apostle Paul, when, speaking of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, he saith, "that he which in these things serveth Christ, pleaseth God and is acceptable to men" (Rom. xiv. 18). MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH-VERSES 5 and 6. If a Man is so constituted that, in some respects, he must have objects outside of himself to lean upon. As a child, he leans upon a wisdom and strength which is superior to his own, and few men are so self-sufficient as entirely to lay aside this habit in after life. In many things we must, whether we will or not, depend upon the guidance and help of others. Every man, in common with the lower creatures, must of necessity lean upon a power greater than his own. "The eyes of all wait upon Thee" (Psa. cxlv. 15). But this is a leaning which needs no exhortation: it springs from necessity. The exhortation of the text implies that in some things men have to choose whether they will lean upon God or not. I. What is necessary in order to comply with the exhortation. 1. A knowledge of God. We cannot place entire trust in any person of whose character we have no knowledge; or, if we do so, we show our want of discretion. traveller across Central Africa were to give himself up to the guidance of the first native whom he met, he would probably find that his confidence had been misplaced. The youth who trusts in the first companion who offers his friendship is like a blind man placing his hand in that of any stranger who may offer him guidance. All lasting trust is based upon knowledge. "They that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee" (Psa. ix. 10). The confidence of a wise man is born of knowledge of character. God can be known. His only-begotten Son hath declared Him (Luke x. 22; John i. 18, xvii. 3). 2. Love to God. The character must be known, and, being known, must be loved, if there is to be a lasting confidence. We shall not lean with much weight where we do not love. The trust of a Christian will be in proportion to his love to his Lord. The more intimate the knowledge, the deeper will be the love; the deeper the love, the more entire the trust. Our Lord Jesus Christ knew His Father (John xvii. 25) as no creature could know Him, and His love being based upon this profound knowledge, His trust was entire and His obedience perfect, even in His darkest hours. "But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do." "Arise, let us go hence" (John xiv. 31). We cannot do better than write after this copy. II. The necessary effect of such a confidence. We shall acknowledge God in all our ways. This must mean-1. A practical recognition of His presence. We may be in the presence of a superior, and know that we are in his presence, without acknowledging it by showing him the respect that is due to him. If this is the case, we virtually ignore his existence. A child whose behaviour is not deferential to his parent practically ignores him. Acknowledging God in all our ways implies a reverent attitude of soul towards Him. 2. A belief in God's care for the individual life. God makes Himself known as the God of the individual man. The care of the individual is his self-imposed task. “I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac, and behold I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest" (Gen. xxviii. 13, 15). 3. The reference of all our affairs to His guidance, and a submission of our will to His. This will be easy and natural in proportion to our knowledge, and love, and conviction that God will not think any of our concerns beneath His notice. Our submission will be in the ratio of our confidence-our confidence in the ratio of our knowledge. III. The promise of direction guaranteed to compliance with the exhortation. 1. Men have many ways in life. Man's many ways spring from his many needs. He has a living to earn in the world. His hunger must be satisfied-his body must be clothed and fed. His social wants must be met-he must have companions, form relationships. His mind must have food as well as his body. The aspirations of his spirit form another way, and demand direction and enlightenment. But one way-the way of acknowledging God-is needful to make any and all the other ways profitable and pleasant. 2. The certainty of right guilance from the foreknowledge and power of the guide. An Alpine guide, who has traversed a road many times, knows from memory what is at the end of the journey. He sees the end while he is on the way. God's foreknowledge answers to our memory. He sees the end to which He is bringing us while we are on the way. And His power makes the accomplishment of his plans certain. He can speak of them as finished before the means are set in motion to bring them to pass. He said to Joshua: “Behold, I have given into thine hand Jericho" (Josh. vi. 2), before any steps had been taken to overthrow it. His guidance makes it certain that His designs will be accomplished, whatever becomes of our plans. OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS. Verses 5 and 6. The heart, the seat of the affections, and also, in Hebrew psychology, the conscience, which is not a sure guide unless it is regulated by the Lord's will and word.-Wordsworth. Once, indeed, man's understanding gave clear, unclouded light, as man's high prerogative-created in the image of God. But now-degraded by the fall, and darkened by the corruption of the heart-it must prove a false guide. Even in a renewed man-a prophet of God-it proved a mistaken counsellor 2 Sam. vii. 2, 5). Yet throw it not away; cultivate it; use it actively; but lean not to it.-Bridges. "He shall Himself," i.e., by His own Spirit. There is an emphatic pronoun. When we walk, it is not we that walk, but God.-Miller. "Leaning to our own understanding" is, as far as it prevails, a kind of practical atheism. To form and prosecute our plans in this spirit of selfconfidence, is to act as if there were no God-as if the fool's thought, or the fool's wish, were true.-Wardlaw. I. The duty enjoined. 1. Entire. 2. Exclusive 3. Uniform. II. The blessing promised-Direction. Necessary on account of-1. Our fallibility. 2. The hazards of the way. 3. False guides. Promised. 1. By the pointings of Providence. 2. By the lessons of the Bible. 3. By the influences of the Holy Spirit.-Outlines by Rev. G. Brooks. The fundamental principle of all religion, consisting in an entire selfcommitment to the grace and truth of God, with the abandonment of every attempt to attain blessedness by one's own strength or wisdom.-Lange's Commentary. The distant and unconfiding will come on occasion of State formalities to the sovereign; but the dear child. will leap forward with everything. The Queen of England is the mother of a family. At one time her ministers of State come gravely into her presence to converse on the policy of nations; at another, her infant runs to her arms for protection, frightened at the buzzing of a fly. Will she love this last appeal because it is a little thing? We have had fathers of our flesh who delighted when we came to them with our minutest ailments. How much more should we bring all our ways to the Father of our spirits, and live by simple faith on Him.-Arnot. We may be led for the exercise of our faith into a way of disappointment, or even of mistake. But no step well prayed over will ever bring ultimate regret.-Bridges. |