The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 2 — Section 77

Asaph's questions and troubles and prayers find their echo in ten thousand Christian hearts to-do.y. It would be extremely interesting if we could certainly tell to what crisis of Israel's history this noble psalm refers. Some say the Chaldean invasion; others, the Mo.ccabean tyranny. Very strong reasons are given in the 'Speaker's Com- mentary' for believing that it refers to the Egyptian invasion in the reign of Rehobcam (2 Chron. xii.). .As that was the first time when the kingdom of David fell under the power of a heathen conqueror, so the trial to the faith of God's people was correspond- ingly severe. It seemed as though God had forgotten his covenant, and Church and state (to nee our modern phrase) were to perish in common ruin. The spiritual lesson is not affected by any uncertainty as to the historic reference. Th" psalmist takes refuge in God. His plea is that it is God's own cause which is at stake. In effect, it is the same which Moses urged (Exod. xxxii. 11, ff.; Numb. xiv. 13, ff.); and Joshua, "What wilt thou do unto thy great Name'!" (Josh. vii. 9). "Arise," etc. I. THE 0AUSE OF Gon's CHURCH 1s Gon's OWN CAUSE, The word so rendered means"strife," "controversy" (cump.Hos,iv,1;.xii.2; Micah vi.2; Jer.xxv.31). The Lord's cause, then, is that ancient controversy which began when sin entered the world; and will never cease till sin ik conquered, and death, the last enemy, destroyed, and all things i,laced under the feet of Christ. 'fhe strife between truth and lies, holiness aud sin, right and wrong, between "the things that make for peace" and the things about which men cry, "Peace! peace!" but God says, "There is no peace to the wicked." One of the moral dangers of our time is a feeble sense of the reality, greatness, infinite issues, of the conflict. Society is awake, sensitive, as never before, to human suffering and misery; but no correspondiag sense of man's sin and guilt. Criminals are often more pitied for their punishment than condemned for their wicked- ness. We can understand (or think we can) our Saviour's tears over the approachiu~ calamities of Jerusalem; but, perhaps, fail to see that the deepest source of his grief was the unbelief and the sin of which those impending calamities would be the outcome (Luke xix. 42; Matt. xxiii. 37). We see how dreadrul it is for savages to run about naked and eat one another, to be enslaved or massacred. But do we see how far morn terrible it is for them to be without God in the world, without Christ, without hope? We do not want to be less humane, soft-hearted, sympathetic; but we do want to measure by a juster standard, to see that God's cause i~ the supreme interest of human history, that there is nothing we can pray for, work for, live for, to be compared with this-that his Name be hallowed, his kingdom triumph, his will be done. We can see that this is God's own cause; but how is it the cause of bis people, of Israel in ancient days, of the Church of Christ in our own? Just because this is the very end for the sake of which the Church exists, for the sake of which the nation of Israel was called into being. Christians are in danger of just the mistake into which the Jews fell. 'l'hey thought they were the chosen, favoured people of Jehovah, to the exclusiou of all other nations, and that they might despise and bate the Gentiles. Whereas the truth was, it was for the sake of all mankind that they were chosen-to be God's witnesses, that all nations might be blessed in their promised King and Saviour. So Christians are not saved simply for their own sake, but to be the "salt of the earth" and "light of the world;" " firstfruits" (Jas. i. 18). II. 'l'hcreforc, secondly, THE 0AUSE OF GoD IS THE 0AUSE OF :MANKIND. Attempts have been made to set in opposition "the service of God" and "the service of man." In actual fact, none have rendered such service to men as those devoted to the service of God. No power hut the go~pel of Jtsus Christ can take a horde of naked cannibals and, in a single generation, change them into peaceful, intelligent, useful members of the greo, community of nations-many of them willing martyrs for truth and charity. The moral ideas of universal justice, personal liberty, human brotherhood, the value of each human being, the duty of the rich to the poor, which have abolished slavery and serfdom, and arc working so mightily towards the regeneration of society, find room only in Christianized nations, and have their fountain in the gospel. But the gospel aims at something very different from re~enerating socioty with ideas, however true and Divine. It aims to bring each human being, as a lost wanderer, home to God. Alone among systems, the gospel goes to the heart and root of all m~u•s wretchedness and degradation-sin. The estrangement of the individual heart aud life from God, and disobedience to his law of love. If you want an unanswerable proof that the SG THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [1'8. LXXIV, 1-23.