figures of gods, practically take the place or the gods whom they really represent. The plea of the psalm, that idols are helpless, is effective a!!Binst the sentiment or the ordinary idol-worshipper; but the reflective idolater regards it as altogether beside the mark, because the figures are but the reminders of some incarnation of his spiritual deity. II. TBE DDLlTERU.L REALITY BEHIND TilE FIGURES TilAT CAN RESPOND. Let the figures be the agency we use for our dealing with the unseen One; then, though still we may not think of bodily organs or senses, we can be sure of response in the spiritual, and, if necessary, also in the material spheres. We also have the figure or the human Christ to help us to realize the eternal Father, who is the Hearer and Answerer of prayer.-R. T. Ver. 21.-God's earthly dzoelling-pl~. As in Ps. cxxviii. 5, Jehovah blesses the covenant people out of Zion, so here they bless him out of Zion-that is the place where the reciprocal relation is best and chiefly realized. What ide.LS can be properly associated with God's having a permanent abode on earth? We must be careful to distinguish between ideas that may be cherished, and ideas that must be dismisse,I as unworthy. L Goo's EARTHLY DWELLING-PLACE CE~"TRALIZES THE RKLIGION AND THE NATI0:-1. "In Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." Under some circumstances it may be a good thing to have religion localized ; but advancing development makes such iocalization a hindrance and an enl. "The time now is when neither on Gerizim nor at Jerusalem shall men worship the Father." The material help is only wanted until the spiritual has come. Then man himself is God's dwelling-place. II. Goo's EARTHLY DWELLING-PLACE DECLARES GoD'S RELATIVITY TO MAN. We often think of man as in God's image ; but there is an answering truth-God is in man's image. 'l'hat God should want an earthly dwelling-place convinces men that he is one of themselves, seeing he wants what they want. So God's temple dwelling- place was the foreshadowing of, and preparation for, his incarnation in his Son, and for the spiritual indwelling by the Holy Ghost. IIL Goo's EARTHLY DWKLLING-PLA.OE CONVINCES 01" THE lllMEDUOY 01" BIS KNOW- LEDGE. God absent in heaven is thought of as knowing by report. God actually and always present knows at once, is immediately interested, and can instantly act. Illustrate by the moral effect of the absence of an earthly king, and the moral effect of the sense or his presence. IV. Goo's EARTHLY DWELLING-PLACE BEOOMES A PERPETUAL OALL TO DUTY, AND INSPIBATION OF GOODNESS, The sense of service is quickened when that service mny be called for at any hour; and the hope of winning the King's approval renews holy endeavour. God's dwelling with men is real, but unseen. No Jew would doubt that God was in his holy temple. But no Jew ever saw him. That unseen presence helped to the later conception of God dwelling unseen in the temple of man's soul, apprehended as the Holy Ghost.-R. T. Vers. 1-21.-God's praises. "An exhortation to the priests and Levites who wait in the sanctuary to praise Jehovah, both because of his goodness in choosing Israel to be his people, and because of his greatness, and the almighty power which he has shown, in his dominion over the world of nature, and in the overthrow of all the enemies of his people. 'l'hen his abiding majesty is contrasted with the uothingness of the idols of the heathen." I. THE GENJl:RAL GBOtJNDS 01" THE PRAISE 01.l' Goo. 1. Because he ia good. (Ver. 3.) 2. Beoouse his name or nature is beautiful, or lovely. II. SPECIAL GROUNDS OF PRAISE. 1. Because he has chosen Israel to be his people. When God has bestowed great privileges he seems to have chosen such 11 people, as in the case of the Jews and the other great peoples of the world. 2. Because of the great- fleBS of God in the worl.-a of nature. Hi:! will is absolute and irresistible in all the m11terial world. But man has free- will, and can oppo~e God, though God's will i11 supremely good and ought to be obeyed. 3. Because of the greatness and goodness of God in redemption. (Vers. 8, 9.) In both temporal and spiritual redemption. He gave hie people the promised land. ¼. The righteousness ef God. (Ver, H.) H@ 286 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PB, OXXXVI, 1-26.
judgetb his people, and has pity upon them. Righteousness and meroy make the per- fect God worthy of all praiue-worship. 5. God's infinite sympathy compared with tll6 idols ef the heathen. They cannot speak, or see, or hear. God is in contact and sym- pathy with the meanest of his creatures.-$,