The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 3 — Section 335

As e. commo.nd, it enjoin~: 1. '.fliat this service shall be undertaken, not by one here and there, but by the whole of the existing generation. It is to be a public-a universal service. It is e. frightful condition of things for the coming generation if the present be careless a.bout, or opposed to, such tro.nsmission of God's truth. Better that children should be brought up in any form of the Christian faith, than in no religion o.t all. God help our land, if the secularists of our day have their wl11 in regard to our national education I 'l'he people at large are to care for the children at large, that they may be to.ught the truth of God. 2. But it is /Ulpecially the business of the parents. This evidently is in the mind of the psalmist, that fathers to sons should teach the works of God. Nature, their own love for their children, regard for their own comfort; for what more rends the hearts of parents than ill-bred, ungodly children? Justice and right demand it; for what parents are there that do not transmit much evil to their children? Therefore let them see to it that they teach them that which shall blessedly counteract the evil. And God plainly commands it.. All these motives, and yet others, enforce this duty. 3. ..dnd the duty is urgent. "\Ve have not much time. One generation cometh, another goeth ; our op1 ·ort □ ni ty will soon be gone. 4. If we do not obey this cummand, no one else will. After all, if parents fail in this plain duty, none can really supply their lack of service or take their place; what the home is, that will, well-nigh always, the children be. CONCLUSION. Let children, whose parents have obeyed this command of God, remember how great is the responsibility that rests upon them. "To whom much is given, of the same," etc.-S. C. Vers. 5, 6.-'I'he one and the many. It is interesting to note the alternations in this psalm, as in numerous others, of the one and the many. 'l'he psalmist declares what be himself will do, and then he tells e.lso what the people at large will do. So it is here. The psalm opens with a personal declaration," I will extol," etc.; "Every day will I bless," etc. Then in ver. 4 he speo.ks of all the generatious of men ; then (ver. 5) he returns to himself and his own purposes; ver. 6 o.sserts bolb the general conduct and his own, e.nd then a.gain speaks of men at large. Then at the eml the declaration is made, both as to himself o.nd "o.11 flesh." Now, what do such alter- no.tions as these suggest? Surely the relations in which the one and the many may stand to each other in regard to God's service. I. As HEBE, THERE HAY BE BOTH. The psnlmist is not left alone, but his joy in God and his praises a.re sympathized with o.nd shared in by a goodly company of others. How rarely can this be said of any nation? Some there will be who will be on the Lord's side; but they are very far from being all the people. It will b,•, as in this psalm, when we reach the heavenly world; there there will be universal praise. But rarely is it so here. Still, there may be, o.nd there a.re, often times, npproxi- ruations to this blessed condition, when not one here and there only, but when the people generally praise the works of the Lord. Let it be our prayer and endeavour to bring a.bout such condition. It is the prayer of Ps. lxvii. Would that it were thnt of o.11 the people of God I II. BuT THEnE MAY BE NEITill':R. Not only are the voices of the many silent as to the praise of God, but not one solitary voice is henrd nnywbero. So will it be amid the abodes of those who have fino.lly rejected the grnce of God, and are therefore lost. And there a.re, o.las I utterly godless communities eveu now I \Vhen N oab was taken from bis generation, all the rest could not furnish e. rnlitnry servant of God. So nt Sodom and Gomorrah. And when the Uhristian Church bad left the doomed Jerusalem, and beta.ken themselves to Pella, there remained such o.uother godless people, 'l'hrmk God, amongst mankind at large, be has never left himself without witness in some region or another; but in different localities it may be that there are neither the m~uy nor even the one on the Lord'~ side. If any servant of God knows of such a locality, that is where o.t once he should go and bear bis testimony, and extol the Name of his God and King. 'l'he dark places of the earth are full of the bnbitations of cruelty; but woe betide that Church or that individual Christian who cares not fur it, or seeks not to enliahten that darkness I Let us all remember that we are day by day titting uurselves cither for the a.bode where a.JI men praise the Lord, or where none do, an,l tach <lay sees us nearer the one or the otli.,ir. 378 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PB. OXLV. 1-21.