Thy Presence bright. A day's march nearer heaven
And nearer Thee
I am this night.
For all the tenderness
Which Thou hast shown
To me this day, For strength in feebleness,
To Thee alone
My thanks I pay.
Thy holy angels stand
As guards above
My lowly bed; And Thine own gracious hand.
Thy hand of love,
Is 'neath my head,
I
What if, before the morn,
Thou bid'st me rise
And come to Thee ? Then homeward swiftly borne,
Beyond the skies,
My soul shall be.
Or if it be Thy will
That I should see
Another day, O let Thy presence still
Eemain with me.
And be my stay ! ^
^ Ellen Lakshmi Goroh. ,
JOB-PS. XXX. — 15
The Greatness of Man.
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Literature.
Alexander (J. A.), The Gospel of Jesus Christ, 512.
Ballard (F.), Does it Matter what a Man Believes? 154,
Barton (G. A.), The Roots of Christian Teaching, 45.
Bersier (E.), Sermons, vi. 203.
Davies (J. LI.), The Gospel and Modern Life, 88.
Hodge (C), Princeton Sermons, 64.
Hutton (W. H.), The Lives and Legends of the English Saints, 1.
Kingsley (C), Sermons for the Times, 129.
Lorimer (G. C), in Marylebone Presbyterian Pulpit, ii. No. 6.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions of Holy Scripture : 1 Timothy to Hebrews,
212. Maurice (F. D.), Sermons in Country Churches, 148. Melvill (H.), The Golden Lectures, 321. Meyer (F. B.), The Way into the Holiest, 34. Muir (P. M.), Modern Substitutes for Cliristianity, 91. Perin (G. L.), The Sunny Side of Life, 255. Smellie (A.), In the Hour of Silence, 189. Sowter (G. A.), Trial and Triumph, 199. Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), xvii. No. 1094. Wilkinson (J. B.), Mission Sermons, ii. 81. Christian World Pulpit, xl. 241 (Clifford) ; Ixxii. 73 (Clayton) ; Ixxvi.
324 (Morris). Expositor, 3rd Ser., x. 81 (Cheyne). Homiletic Review, xxi. 167 (Dobbs) ; Ix. 142 (Vance).
398
The Greatness of Man.
For thou hast made him but little lower than God, and crownest him with glory and honour, — Ps. viii. 5.
1. This Eighth Psalm seems to belong to the time when David had charge of his father's flocks, rather than to any other period of his life. We may agree with Delitzsch and others that prob- ably none of the Davidic Psalms in the Psalter were composed until after he was anointed king, and became " the sweet psalmist of Israel " (2 Sam. xxiii. 1, E.V.). But that does not forbid our finding here a vivid reminiscence of some brilliant night on the hills of Bethlehem, when the shepherd youth lifted up his soul to God, praising Him for the glory of the heavens, and, even more, for the honour He has bestowed upon man. It is probable that many of the Psalms were written in the tranquil old age of the royal singer, recalling the most remarkable events of his earlier life, and reproducing the thoughts and emotions that had then stirred mightily within him, and to some extent the very words in which they had found expression.
It is an evening song, the carol of the nightingale rejoicing in the sheen of the moon and the stars. Yet we may be sure that the soul of the singer was flooded with the sunlight of Divine grace and favour. It is a lyrical episode to the grand lyric of the creation, touching it at the story of the fourth and sixth of the creative days. There are several kindred songs, celebrating the wonders of nature as exhibiting the perfections of God. But not one of them combines so marvellously the highest poetic beauty with inspiring suggestiveness. It touches the extreme points of God's self-attestation to man, uniting the glory of the beginning with the greater glory of the close, the light that flashed out when there was yet no human eye to behold it, with the light of the city of the redeemed.
2. The culminating point of the Psalm is the glory originally
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230 THE GREATNESS OF MAN
bestowed upon man in investing him with the sovereignty over all creatures upon the earth, alluding to the Divine ordinance in Gen. i. 28. The Divine work on the fourth day of creation, and the crowning work of the sixth, are brought vividly into the present, and in sharp contrast. The glory of the visible heavens with their flaming orbs seems to entitle them to higher estimation than any possible product of almighty power. But upon man, in his insignificance and feebleness, even a greater glory was be- stowed, and he is invested with the highest dignity. Under God, and yet but a little lower, he is made lord over all the earth. Every tenant of land, and air, and sea, is subjected to his power.
3. Is this glorious Psalm prospective, as well as retrospective ? By any legitimate interpretation, does it include within its sweep of space, and time, and power, God's redemptive as well as His creative work ? Does it contain any hint of a greater glory and a higher dignity in the future ?
We think that it does most assuredly. If not distinctly in the thought of the sacred poet, it lay in the thought and purpose of God, as clearly as if already accomplished, that whenever the full glory of fellowship with God should be realized, whenever the germinal and immature living principle that he received by the Divine breath — his higher Divine nature — should attain its most perfect beauty and strength, he would indeed be lord over all in a loftier sphere. He was not made in the image of God that he might for ever be a keeper of sheep and driver of oxen, or that he might subjugate the lion, and harpoon the whale. This " dominion over the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea " is a parable for the future, when more absolutely, " all things shall be put under his feet." His rule over the brute creation was a fact in the then present, in accordance with his capacity in the first period of his existence. It comprehends a prophecy and pledge that, whatever position he shall hereafter occupy, when the glory of his nature reaches its fullest develop- ment, and he attains fitness for higher dignity and rule, he shall be lord paramount, none above him save God only.