5. King Varunn sees all this, what is between heaven and earth, and what is beyond. He has counted the twinklings of the eyes of men. As a player throws the dice, he settles all things. 6. May all thy fatal nooses, which stand spread out seven by seven 1md threefold, catch the man who tells a lie I may they pass by him who tells the truth I" I. THE D1v1KE INSPECTION 1s AN OBSERVATION. All outward thin~s related to us are "naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Illustrnte by the regiment inspected by the colonel. Everything-health, bearing, dress, weapons, etc.-is carefully observed. God knows all about us, 11. THE DIVINE INSPECTION IS A SPIRITUAL TESTING. It concerns the inner man. It deals with cherished thought, fixed motive, passing mood, varyiug feeling. There is so much that never gets expressed in word and a.et, which nevertheless makes up our real selves; and all this God knows.-R. T. Yer. 6.-The oppression of the Divine omniscience. "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me." "Nowhere are the great attributes of God-his omniscience, his omnipresence, his omnipotence-set forth so strikingly as they are in this magnificent psalm. Nowhere is there a more overwhelming sense of the fact that man is beset and compassed about by God, pervaded by his Spirit, unable to take a. step without bis control; and yet nowhere is there a more emphatic assertion of the personality of man as distinct from, not absorbed in, the Deity" (Perowne). A philosopher was asked by a. monarch about God, and he desired a. day for his answer. He then asked for another day in which to give his answer. The more he thought about God, the more he seemed unable rightly to describe him. At last the monarch asked the philosopher why he so often delayed to tell him what he knew about God; and be replied, "The more I think about God, the more incomprehensible he seems to be." The kind of oppression which comes from feeling that God knows even the very minutest things about us, and even everything that will come to us, may be illustrated by the oppressed feeling that the persons skilled in palmistry give us. Looking at our hands, they seem able to read our character and our destiny; and we shun them with a kind of fear, lest, knowing so much, they become mischief-makers. It really is an awe-ful thing that God should know us altogether. This is seen in Hagar's oppressed exclamation," Thou God seest me 1" and in a better way, in Jacob's devout utterance, when he had seen the ladder of God's care, "How dreadful is this place l" Notice- !. How PEilFECT THE DIVINE OMNISCIENCE IS I The psalm illustrates the Divine knowledge, not of things in general, but of us-" Thou knowest me," my doing this or that; (1) my imaginations; (2) my designs and undertakings; (3) even my retire- ments and hidings; (4) my sayings ;,(5) my entire history; (6) every part of me (" Beset me behind and before"). II. How OPPRESSIVE THE DIVINE OMNISCIENCE IS I Even when we aro in right relations with God, it is oppressive. It is an awful feeling that we can never be alone. We can never escape the eye. The only relief comes by the knowledge that it is our Father's eye. He knows only that he may help. What is Divine omniscience to those who neither know nor love God ?-R. 'l'. Vers. 7-10.-Omnipresence a fear and a satisfaction. Calvin says, "The word •Spirit' is not put here simply for the power of God, as commonly in the Scriptures, but for his mind and understanding." Milton, as a young man, travelled much abroad. Years afterwards he thus expressed himself: "I again take God to witness that in all places where so ma?y thin~s are _considered lawful, I live_d sound and untouched f_rom all profli<1acy and vice, having this thought perpetually with me-that though I might escape the eyes of men, I certainly could not tbo eyes of God." I. OMNIPRESENCE A FEAR. This term is not here used in a sense that applies to the uncrodly 0 man. Indeed, such a man will in no way apprehenrl or encourage the idea of God's omnipresence; it has no practical reality to him. The omnipresence of God is a religious man's idea, and we havo to think of its influence upon him, It fills him with a holy fear, which is a. mingling of awe aud reverence and anxiety. '!'hat presence brings the perpetual call to worship; it _keeps before us the claims of obedience i and it shows us continually the model of righteousness, "Be ye thereforu PB, Oll.XXIX. 1-24.] THE BOOK OF P.3ALMS. 323
perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." It has been said that a. "Christian s~ould g? nowhere if he cannot take God with him ; " but that presence would make him afraid to go to many places where he does go; ancl it is a weakness of Christian life that the holy fear of the sense of God's presence is not more worthily realized. The fear to offend or grieve is a holy force working for righteousness. II. OMNIPRESENCE A BATISFA0TION. When we really love a person, and are quite sure of their response to our love, we want to be always with them. Separation is pain; presence is rest and satisfaction. And it is in the fullest sense thus with God. " We love him because he first loved us." And since there is this responsive love, ,ve cannot be happy away from him; and we are p~rmitted to think that he cannot be happy away from us. Aud so the psalmist says, "I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever, to behold the beauty of the Lord." An<l the Lord Jesus satisfies the longin"0 of his people with his promide, "Lo, I am with you all the d,tys."-R. T.