1. The " heart " is the seat, not only of the desires and emotions, but also of the conscience and the intellect. The Psalmist appeals, in these words, to the conscience and reason of his hearers. He would have them collect their thoughts, and " say in their heart " something like those words of Isaiah, " Come ye, and let us walk in the light of Jehovah."
There is the belief of the head and the belief of the heart. And these two blend together in one. As the heart believes, the objects of belief gradually clear and become definite to us. We no longer use words merely : we feel within us that they have a meaning ; but our inward experience becomes the rock on which we stand : it is like the consciousness of our own existence. Can I doubt that He who has taught me to serve Him from my youth upward — He who supported me in that illness, who brought me near to the gates of death and left me not alone, is none other than God Himself? Can I doubt that He who gave me the impulse to devote myself to His work and to the good of mankind, who in some way inexplicable to me enables me to calm the violence of passion, the thought of envy, malice, impurity, to whom I go to lay open my breast and cleanse the thoughts of my heart, can be none other than the true God ? Can it be that that
^ J. Wells, The Life of James Stewart of Lovcdale, 93.
PSALM IV. 4, 5 193
example which He has given me in the life of His Son is other than the truth for me and for all mankind ? Here we seem to have found the right starting-point. " Lord, I believe ; help thou mine unbelief." ^
^ In Psalm Ixxvii. 6 we read : " I commune with mine own heart ; and my spirit maketh diligent search." Here David and his heart are talking together ; and see what his heart saith unto him in Psalm xvi. 7 : " My reins instruct me in the night seasons," For that the heart and reins do signify the same thing, when they are taken in a spiritual sense, and that they, so taken, do signify the conscience, — is a matter so copiously evident in Scripture that I need not to use any instances to prove it. And so in John viii. 9, when our Saviour bids, " Whosoever is without sin, cast the first stone " at the woman taken in adultery, it is said of the company present, that they were " convicted of their own con- science." The word in the Greek doth properly signify "a conviction by argument " : there was something within them that over-argued them, and talked and disputed them clean away. And so in Eom. ii. 15 : " The consciences of the very heathen spake, as it were, within them," and gave in evidence either for them or against them, their thoughts either accusing or excusing, " inter se invicem," as the Vulgar Latin, — as in a discourse among themselves.2
Commune with thine own heart ! — no need
To wander the wide earth around ; If but in thine own breast thou read
Aright — thy God thou wilt have found; Who habiteth Eternity There condescends to dwell with thee.
Commune with thine own heart ! for there
The Heaven-ascending ladder lies, A pathway into purer air,
A window giving on the skies; Through which thou mayest wing thy flight, And mingle with the Infinite. . , .
Commune with thine own heart ! — for there
The better, nobler self resides. That in the life Divine doth share.
And ever in the Presence bides; The self with Deity at one, As with its beam the central sun.
* Benjamin Jowett, Cellcgc Sermons, 21. 'J. Lightfoot, Works, vi. 101.
JOB-PS. XXX. — 13
194 THE FOUR ACTS OF RELIGION
There — from the world of sense aloof — Such insight shall be granted thee
As shall afford thee ample proof Of thine august paternity;
The Spirit witnessing with thine
That thou art sprung from seed Divine.^
2, "Upon your bed." — "To commune upon one's bed" is a form of expression taken from the common practice and experi- ence of men. We know that, during our intercourse with men in the daytime, our thoughts are distracted, and we often judge rashly, being deceived by the external appearance ; whereas in solitude, we can give to any subject a closer attention ; and, further, the sense of shame does not then hinder a man from thinking without disguise of his own faults, David, therefore, exhorts his enemies to withdraw from those who witnessed and judged of their actions on the public stage of life, and to be alone, that they may examine themselves more truthfully and honestly. And this exhortation has respect to us all ; for there is nothing to which men are more prone than to deceive one another with empty applause, until each man enters into himself, and communes alone with his own heart. Paul, when quoting this passage in Eph. iv. 26, or, at least, when alluding to the sentiment of David, follows the Septuagint, " Be ye angry, and sin not." And yet he has skilfully and beautifully applied it to his purpose. He there teaches us that men, instead of wickedly pouring forth their anger against their neighbours, have rather just cause to be angry with themselves, in order that, by this means, they may abstain from sin. And, therefore, he commands them rather to fret inwardly, and be angry with themselves ; and then to be angry not so much at the persons, as at the vices of others.^