The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 3 — Section 12

the case introduced here is that of men who are persistent in their self-will, and let It fashion their course of conduct, their habit of life, I. AFFLICTIONS ARB THE NATURAL CONSEQUENCE OF WILFULNESS, Because the wilful spirit is sure to lead to acts which involve trouble. The world is ordered accord- ing to the will of God; and it keeps the order when man's will is in harmony with God's will. Illustrate by the peace of a country, and welfare of all its inhabitants, when the will of the people and the will of the governing body are in harmony. Every self-willed citizen spoils the harmony for the whole, and brings trouble on himself. So in God's kingdom. The self-willed (foolish) man is a disturbing element; and the king, all law-abiders, and all the arrangements of the kingdom, must be against him. He cannot get his own way ; he must "bring affliction on himself," and not on himself alone. It is a searching and humbling inquiry-How many of our earthly afflictions a.re the direct result-the natural consequence-of our wilful persistence in wrong-doings? 'l'he humiliation of the review of life is the discovery of how many troubles were our own foult, and might have been avoided by mastering our self-will. "Many sicknesses are the direct result of foolish acts. Thoughtless and lustful men, by drunkenness, gluttony, and the indulge □ ce of their passions, fill their bodies with diseases. Men, by a course of transgression, afflict themselves, and are fools for their pains." I!. AFFLICTIONS ARE THE DIVINE AGENOY FOB BRINGING WILFUL ONES TO BEASON. Perhaps it is true that God's afflictions are never "judgments," in the sense of mere vindicatory punishments. But they are not always "judgments 11 in the sense of "chastisements." They are--certainly they are for the persistently wilful-" judg- men ts" in the sense of" humiliations." Their design is to break men away from their self-confidence. And therefore the affliction is so directly connected with the sin, and men are compelled, humiliatingly, to admit that they have brought their troubles on themselves.-R. T. Ver. 22.-Thanlcsgiving when prayer is answered. Men are much more ready to pray than to give thanks; to express their desires than to recognize the response made to their desires. Men fail in gratitude rather than in petition. Therefore do the apostles specially urge this grace, and req,uire its cultivation by th~ _Christian disciples (see Phil. iv. 6; Col. iv. 2; Heb. xiii. 15). The call to thanksgmng 1s the refrain of the psalm. Man is seen u{ gain no blessing save through the ministry of him who is the "Author and Giver of every good and perfect gift." And man's sin is seen to be restraining his lips, and failing to make due recognition of" grace abounding." A life full of God's benedictions should be a lifo full of God's praise. In this text the general duty is presented under two figures. I. Tl!il,"'KSGIVIKG As A SACRIFICE. The pecnliarity of a sacrifice is that it is a silent act. It is something a man does which has its own voice, and need not be accompanied with anv words. When the old Jew brou"'ht his animal to the priest, accordi □ g to the rules or" the Mosaic ritual he did not ne;d to say anything by way of explanation. The priest perfectly under~to~ what_he meant. So!D-e act or _Divine ~~rcy was filling him with thankfulness, and hie offering found for 1t expression. Ph1hp Henry puts this sharply: "Thanksgiving is a good thing, thanbliving is a better." The self offered in sacrifice speaks our gratitude to the listening ear of God. A man can show himself grateful by his manner of life. Bonar prays- " Fill thou my life, 0 Lord my God, In every part with praise, That my whole being may proclaim Thy Being and thy we.ye. "Not for the lip of praise a.lone, Nor e'en the praising heart, I ask, but for a life made up Of praise in every part." 11I beseech you therefore that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice;" BO says St, Paul And it is to be a sacrifice of thanksgiving. II. THANKSGIVING AS A TESTIMONY. "Tell out hie works with gladness." Here thanksgiving is a voiceful, act. "I will not refrain my lips, 0 Lord, thou knowest." P8. OVU, 1-43.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 13