HOMILETICS. Vers.1-32.-Deliverance and indebtednes,. We can never measure what we ow& to God for his daily loving-kindness. Indeed, it is only the wise who observe and take account of the Divine source of all human blessings, that at all understand how great is our debt of gratitude (ver. 43). But we are too apt to overlook God's goodness to us even in the more striking events of life. How often in the course of our life are we cast upon the kindness of the Divine Redeemer I I. '1'1m MANIFOLDNESS OF OUR NEED. 1. Our necessity takes various tempO'T'al 01' bodily forms. It may be: (1) Distance from home; sometimes in the land of the alien and the enemy (vers. 3, 4-); sometimes in oppressive and depressing solitude (ver. 4-); sometimes in pecuniary straits. (2) Cruel and almost intolerable restraint- in the home, in the school, in the institution, in the prison (vers. 10-12). (3) Bodily evil-sickness, pain, prostration, dependence on the ministry of others (vers. 17, 18). (4) Perils of travel by sea or by land-e.g. the journeys of Paul and all missionaries (vers. 23-27). 2. Our necessity often takes the much more serious aspect of spiritual evils. These may correspond to those of the :flesh. They may be: (1) Distance from God. (2) Spiritual bondage, in which we sigh and struggle for a freedom which seems beyond our reach. (3) Unsoundness of soul, loss of all appetite for the heavenly and the Divine. (4-) Inward commotion, profound unrest. II. THE TRUE ACCOUNT OF OUR DIBTBESS. Its origin is to be found in ourselves- in our own folly, in our own iniquity, in our wilful departure from God; and in the consequent penalty which God's righteousness exacts (see vers. 11, 12, 17). III. THE ONE REFUGE OF THE HEART. Men that forget God at every other time remember him in the hour of trouble and of danger. When they are brought very low, when there is" none to help" (ver.12), when the gates of death are seen (ver. 18), "then they cry unto the Lord." The refrain of the psalm is the habit of the heart of man when his case is desperate, and his son! i~ "faint within him." Nothing but the dark night will bring out the heavenly star. IV. DIVINE INTERVENTION. (Vers. 7, 13, 16, 20, 29, 30.) Sometimes very markedly, sometimes indirectly and through various agencies or instrumentalities, God makes his delivering power to be felt. But in whatever way, directly or indirectly, it is in the exercise of his power and by forces which he has ordained, origiuated, and main- tained, that the wanderer finds his way home, that the fever abates and the patient is healed, that the door of escape is opened and the prisoner comes forth. It is of him and through his grace that the prodigal returns, that the tyrannous habit is broken, that the soul is made pure and sound, that peace and rest come back to the troubled heart, that the light of heaven shines clear on the pilgrim's path. V. THE PLACE OF GRATITUDE IN THE HEART AND LIFE OF MAN. (Vers. 1, 2, 8, 15, 21, 22, 31, 32.) 'l'his should be a very large place. 'l'he redeemed of the Lord should "say so." They should sing bis praise with joyful lips; they should daily offor the sacrifice of thanksgiving; they should carry with them everywhere a sense of deep indebtedness; they should feel that for the special temporal mercies of God, and also for his restoring and reconciling grace in Christ Jesus, they owe a continual, an unbroken, an abounding gratitude-a gratitude that should find vent in sacred song, in blameless conduct, in cheerful submission, in earnest and persevering labours.
Vere. 33-4-8.-Divine revolution. The wheel of providence "goes hll circle," lifting up the lowly and abasing the proud. God turns the rivers into a wilderness, and the wilderness into standing water, etc. (vers. 33, 35). I. THE DIVtNE oVEnTIIROW. He cast out the guilty inhabitants of Canaan, and planted in their place the children of Israel; but when these rebelled against him, he rejected them, and seat them forth into a strange land. Thus has God humbled nations age after age; thus has he humiliated Churches-both great ecclesiastical organizations, and such Churches e.s those we read of in the Apocalypse (Rev. ii., iii.). And thus may we expect that he will bring down all communities that forget their Creator, that are false to their Redeemer, that are unfaithful to their mission. II. THE DIVINE UPBUILDING. (Vera. 36-38, 41.) A people, a Church, a society, e THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PI!, Ovtr. 1--48,
~1r ·: be very _low, ther~ may be b~t a spark of ~ife in it; yet it need not despair. Thero 1s n hand whu:-h can kmdle the famtest spark mto a noble flame· there is One who can turn the sterile desert int-0 the fruitful field. Far above all i:ieans and measures is the consideration-Is God's favour gained 1 Our expectation is from him. "Let Israel h?pc in the Lord." There a~e three things w_hich avail to secure his good pleasure and his rcstormg power. 1. Pemtence for past nnsdeeds 1md present unworthiness. 2. The faith ~\'h1ch leads to earnest prayer for his blessing. 3. The appropriate, devoted action to \\"lnch he calls us. Under these conditions we may look for a Divine revolution~ evil and sorrow overturned, righteousness and prosperity restored.