HOMILETICS. Vors. 1-8.-Sin afai1ure. Neither the violence of sin against others nor its effort on its own behalf is successful. L TuE FAILURE OF ITS VIOLENCE. The enemies of Isro.el are regartletl as tha enemies of the Lord; their attempts to despoil and destroy Israel were sins ago.inst God. They consequently proved to be utter failures. Ther, were mercilessly crnel; they "ploughed upon the back, and made long their furrows; ' they strove to enslnve with their strong cords (ver. 4), but" they did not prevail" (ver. 2); their cords were cut asunder (ver. 4). Israel survived the hardships of Egypt and the captivity of Babylon. Many nations and communities have passed through similar afflictions and oppressions, but they have borne them bravely; they may even have been the purer, the stronger, the more united, for all they have suffered. Many a man can speak in the same strain; his history has been one of struggle and hardship in youth, of toil in mid-life, of deliver- ance and gratitude in later years. He hns lived to seo his oppressors humbled, to find that they who offend God by ill treating his servants come to shame 1md sorrow. 'l'he most striking lesson of the psalm is- U. THE DEGENERACY OF BIN. The psalmist prays (or states) that those who" bntC1 Zion" may be like the grnss which bas no depth of enrth, which withers before it attains maturity, which falls short of the blessing which the well-planted corn enjoys (vers. 6-8). Here are two evils which the u_nboly have _to face_. 1.. Ea~ly with~ing. (1) Sin often leads down to some form of vice, some on\ habit which 1s at variance with the laws of our natur11 and tlie will of Goel. We )iiow what that means. lt l'S4l,llil8-In• B 242 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PB. CXXIX, 1-8.
means the drying up of the distinctively human resources; it means loss of physical vitality ; it means the fading of mental power; it menns the degeneracy of the soul. The end is not far off; before it bas fully "grown up," before the zenith of life is reached, the constitution is wrecked, the darkness of death has fallen. (2) Sin is selfishness, very often worldliness and vanity. And either of these ends in a sad spiritual withering. The heart closes up; there is no expansion, no ripenincr, no fruit- bearing under the gracious influences of Divine love and human pity and h~ly fellow- ship. Long before bodily death arrives, spiritual destruction has come. 2. The loss of the higher good. The man who is living under the dominion of sin and selfishness misses all that is worthiest and best. In his life is no such scenery as that so beau• tifully sketched in the psalm. He has to go without the blessing of God and the benediction of his kind.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-8.-The Divine life. This psalm is capable of a threefold application. It tells of the Divine life- I. IN lsBAEL. 1. The existence of the chosen peopls was a lifelong struggle. The sounds of battle and war are never, save but for short intervals, absent from their hisrory. From the oppression they had to endure in Egypt right down to the time when this psalm was composed, they never lacked enemies who "fought against" them, and did them all the harm they could. 2. But their enemies never altogether prevailed. (Ver. 2.) Sooner or later deliverance came. Such a deliverance had just now come, and hence this psalm. And the complete deliverance which is still needed for Israel we may well believe, from the records of the past, will, in God's good time be forthcoming. 3. The sufferings which they caused them were very great. (Ver. 3.) As the ploughshare tears up the soil, so the lacerating scourge tore their flesh. In these psalms we yet hear the wail of their lamentations and their exceeding bitter cry (see Pss. ex.xiv., cxxxvii., and many more; comp. Isa. i. 6; li. 23). 4. The Lord, true to hui covenant, put an end to their sufferings. As when the cords, the traces that fasten the oxen to the plough, are cut, the plough comes to a standstill, so the dread plough of suffering, which ploughed such agonizing furrows in their souls, was brought to a standstill; for the Lord cut a.sunder the cords. 5. But t!,e bitter memory begot bitter prayers, (Vers. 6-8.) That those who so dealt with them may be ashamed, defeated, despised as worthless, like the grass that springs up and at once withers, because on the house-top there can be no depth of earth, and hence such grass is of no value at all (cf. Isa. xxxvii. 27), e.nd that they may be such as no blessing of the Lord can rest upon (ver. 8). Before we condemn such prayers, we should put ourselves in the place of those who offered them. They may not be Christian any more than war is always Christian, but they are very natural. They are not the utterances of personal reveoge, but prayers for the overthrow of those who hated Zion, and who were the enemies of God as well as of Zion. Nevertheless, in spite of all, Israel was preserved of God. IL IN THE CHURCH. Verse by verse the words of the JlSBlm tell of her experience. Cradled in conflict, oppressed with suffering, "fought against" by enemies one nrter another, ,•aried in kind, but all terrible, yet never really defeated-" they have not prevailed against me ; " so may the Church say. And long ago the Lord bas cut asunder, for the most part, the cords whereby the cruel ploughshare of persecution was dragged over the bleeding flesh o_f the people o~ ~od. Our f~eedom sho~~ kindlo and keep glowing our ~ympatby with those Chnst1ans who, m the dominions of the "unspeakable Turk," are yet subjected to horrible atrocities. Oh that the Lord may soon cut asuuder those cords, and set bis people free I Nor are the prayers against the perpetrators of such atrocities with which this psalm closes improper for us, and still less for those who endure such wrongs. But God's Church ever lives. III. IN THE INDIVIDUAL souL. Again is this psalm the transcript of the history of the life of God, but now as existing in the soul of the individual Chri~tinn. '!'be enemies now are not of flesh and blood, but spiritual, and, therefore, yet more terrible, PB. CXXIX. 1-8.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 243