The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 3 — Section 285

tabernacled in it and dwelt among ns (Jlbn i.). He was the Son of man, and he knows what is in man. (2) And there is the testimony of conscience. The very etymology of that word implies the knowledge of some one with us; and what we call "con- science" is our recognizing that God sees and judges all we are and do. "Thon God ecest me" is not a mere text, but the confession of every soul. (3) And then there is the testimony of our Lord's life on c11rth. He revealed God in his holiness, power, and love; but he revealed this also-God's knowledge of our inmost heart. Again and again do we meet with statements that assert this superhuman knowledge of our Lord. See how he knew Nathanael, Peter, Judas. Others did not thus know themselves or their fellow-men, bnt he knew them perfectly. This also was a revelation of what is ever in God. 3. .And blessed. For it shows that we are not under the rule of a stranger. The rule of a stranger is ever a hard and irksome rule. And it shows how gracious he is; for, though he knows all about us, yet this does not stay his blessing. .And bow holy; for, though with us the knowledge of evil and the continual contact of it detileP, or at least tends to deaden our sense and horror of evil, and so to lessen our own holiness, it is not at all so with God. See this in Christ. He ",1~ surrounded always by sin, but yet was himself" holy, harmlesP, and undefiled." A 1.J because he thus knows us, he must know what is best for us, so that we may be well content with his ordering of our lot. What a holy restraint thi~ truth exercises upon the believing soul I Indeed, it is only to such soul that this troth is or can be welcome; to the ungodly it is all unwelcome, and they seek to cast it out of _their minds. God forbid that we should do this I JI. THE SECOND DECLARES THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF ESCAPING FROM THE PRESENCE OF Goo. (Vers. 7-12.) The height of heaven cannot transcend him; the depth of hell cannot hide from him; flight, rapid as the rays of the morning sun, cannot outstrip him; distance, like that of the uttermost parts of the sea, cannot separate from bim; darkness, deep as midnight, cannot .conceal from him. It used to be said of ancient Rome that the extent of her empire rendered it impossible for any one who had incurred the displeasure of her emperors to escape their vengeance; yet more truly is it impossible for us to do what Jonah vainly tried to do-to flee from the presence of the Lord. But this perpetual presence is a perpetual joy to the people of God. Our Lord cheered his disciples ere he left them, by promising that he would be with them always. He had said before that" wherever two or three are gathered together in my Name, there," etc. He is a God "at hand, and not afar off." "At thy right hand, therefore, I shall nut be moved." But this perpett1al presence, unescapable, is the terror of the wicked man, for he knows he cannot get away from God. How needful that we should acquaint ourselves with God, and so be at peace I So shall the terror be turned into joy, Ill. THE THIRD BETB FORTH THE GROUND OF Gon's PERFECT KNOWLEDGE OF us. (Vere. 13--16.) •• The mysterious beginnings of life which none can trace, the days ii.II of which are ordered before the first breath is drawn,-these are fashioned and ordered by the hand of God." How, then, can it be otherwise than that he should :-now us altogether? And how reassuring is this truth of God's knowing us from the vcr_v stnrt of our being, because ho is the Author of that being I IV, THE FOURTH SHOWS THE EFFECT OF TBlB TRUTH ON THE DEVOUT SOUL, (Vers. 17-24.) 1. It gives rise to a vast throng of precious thoughts within him. He calls them (ver. 17) "thy thoughts," which may refer either to God's thoughts about us, or to our thoughts about God. Probahly both are meant; for God's thoughts 1Lbout us are precious, for they are thoughts of good, and not evil. And how great and undeserved and freely given is that J;:Ood I And our thoughts about God aro precious also, if indeed we be reconciled to God. None others co.n think nbout God nnd find delight in such thoughts. But if we be bis servants, we think of what God is in himself, of what he has done and will do, in things temporal and in things spiritual, for ourselves, for others dear to us. How ,·nst t ho sum of theso thoughts, nnd how precious I 2. His soul is filled with a holy hatred of the ungodly. Not because of what they had done to him, though that was ba,l enough, and conld not but wake up the spirit of resentment, but because they were the enemies of God (vers. 19-22). It ie good to bate evil, first in ourselves, then in others; and if thoso others will cleave to it, then they and their sin cannot be sepanted, and wo must "count" buth unr 1'e11emies," "Ye that fear tho Lord hate evil," Would to God we all did (cf. homily 320 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PS, OXXXIX, 1-24,