The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 3 — Section 167

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1--8.-Kept from all evt1. This is what the writer of this precious psalm looks for from God (see the first two verses), and this is what the psalm promises, and that with the utmost particularity. There shall not be even a slip of the foot, a thing so common in mountainous lands, and often so perilous, and the keepiug shall be night and day alike, and close at band (ver. 5). The Lord himself shall see to it, whether during the heat of the day or the chill of the night, it matters not. The Lord shall keep thee inwardly and outwardly soul and body alike, from all evil and in all thy ways. "But "-so ask not a few-" is all that true? .ii.re we so kept as this psalm promises-not the mere godless crowd, but the company of God's faithful ones: does the Lord keep them, as is here said, 'from all evil'?" And then there are brought forward the long array of facts which seem to make against the truth of this word. Disease, accident, death, the overwhelming by earthquakes, lightning, flood, storm; by the ferocity or the folly of men, and by any of the ten thousand ills which flesh is heir to. As we contemplate the awful number of victims to such causes as we have r,amed, and the yet worse ruin which conies from moral causes, it is not to be wondered at that some regard this psalm as rather a pious imagination than the declaration of actual fact. What are we to say? are we to give up our faith in the blessed guardian- ship of God, and to consign to the category of credulity the trust which this psalm encourages ? We will not do that, but we will reply- I. THE PnOHISE IS NOT FOB EVEBY COMMUNITY, BUT FOR TIIE PEOPLE OF GoD. 'l'he band of pilgrims who set out from Babylon to return to their native land and to re-establish the worship of God were a special and a holy company, and God did keep them as they journeyed on along the weary wilderness-ways. We must come within the circle of the covenanted people of God ere we can lay claim to the fulfilment of a psalm like this. It is not for the godless, but for the regenerated people of God. For tbem- II. THE GE:t.""EBAL RULE OF Gon's PROVIDENTIAL CARE IB AS HEBE SET F0BTll. Not the uuiversal, but the general rule. There have been and there are exceptions, lmt taking the history of God's people in all ages, and looking at their average experience, may we not cry-It is well with the righteous; the Lord is their Keeper? God's people are, after all, the happiest people under the sun. III. OuB IDEA OF BEING KEPT AND Gon's IDEA MAY BE VERY DIFFERENT. 1. w,, think so much of the keepin_q of the body, and of a man's outward circumstances. But iu comparison with the soul's well-being, God counts these things as of no importance. Hence God may preserve a man's soul when he lets his outward affairs go all to ruin; for the sake of bis soul this may be needed. But if his soul bas been kept, has not God been true to his word? 2. God takes eternity into view; we think only of the present. If, then, a man be eternally saved, does the fact that during a period unspeak- nbly short in comparison with eternity the man's outward life was full of trouble invalidate the promise of this psalm and prove it false? 3. Further, we see only the surface ef things; God looks at the rtality. If, then, what we call disaster, and think to be so, be really amongtit "all things which work to~ethcr for [not merely precede, but produce the] man's good," as is so often the case (see 2 Cor. iv. 17), then is God's permission or sending of that disaster a falsifying of the promise of this psalm? IV. THE PllOMISE MAY BE TRUE TO 'J"IIE HEART WHEN ITS FUl,FILMENT IS NOT APPARENT TO THE EYE. What is the value of all God's providential mercies, bis blessed keeping of us in health and external well-being-what is the value of it except for the eITect it has upon our minds? It is the inward happiness and peace and joy which these things impart which l!:ives them their value. Otherwise they are of no good at all, any more than the strains of sweetest music are to the deaf, or the most. PB, OXXI, 1--8.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 187