SPIRITUAL OBEDIENCE PREFERRED BEFORE SACRIFICE.
Ps. L. 7 — 15. Hear, 0 my people, and I ivill speak; 0 Israel, and I will testify against thee : I am God, even thy God. Iiuill not reprove thee for thy sacrifices, or thy bur7it- offerings, to have been continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy folds ; for every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains ; and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee : for the ivorld is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goals ? Offer nnto God thanksgiving, and pay thy voivsunto the Most High : and call upon me in the day of trouble ; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
IN the psalm before us we have one of those sublime addresses which Jehovah occasionally makes to the whole creation, to hear and judge between
him
him and his offending people". The images are taken from his appearance on Mount Sinai, which was with terrible majesty, insomuch that " Moses -himself said, I exceedingly fear and quake**." The scene is " Mount Zion, the perfection of beauty," even that Zion from v/hence the Gospel has pro- ceeded, and from whence Jehovah speaks to us as our Covenant-God : and this circumstance adds ten- fold weight to his accusations against us. The per- sons whom he arraigns before his tribunal are of two descriptions ; those who rested in mere cere- monial observances for the obtaining of God's favour ; and those who, pretending to higher prin- ciples, dishonoured by their conduct their high and holy profession ; or in other words, formalists and hypocrites. It is the former of these two characters whom he reproves in our text : and the testimony which he bears against them sets forth in very striking terms,
I. The worthlessness of merely formal religion —
Men are apt to imagine, that by their observance of external duties they lay God under obligation to them —
[God had appointed many rites and ceremonies ; and he required the observance of them on the pain of death '^ : but he enjoined them for the people's good, and not for any benefit that could accrue to himself. What pleasure could he take in the blood of bulls and goats ? or, if he did, what need had he to be indebted to his people for such offerings, when the whole world was his, and all the cattle on a thousand hills were at his com- mand ? It was absurd therefore and impious in his people to think that they conferred any obligation upon him by their offer- ings and oblations.
But the very same error obtains amongst us at this day. If we comply with the external commands of God in an observance of the sabbath, an attendance on ordinances, and a performance of certain duties in the familv and the closet, we think that we have a just claim on God, and that he must of necessity feel as much complacency in us, as we do in ourselves. We adduce these services as a clear evidence of the goodness of our hearts,
and as an indisputable title to the Divine favour ]
But
* Isai. i. 2, 3. Mic, vi. 2.
'' Exod. xix. 16—18. with Heb. xii. IS— 21. ' Numb. xv. 30.