Ver. 1.-Great becaw,e known. I. NOTHING IS OF MOUE IMPORTANCE TO MEN TB.AN THE KNOWLEDGE AND RIGHT ESTEEM OF GoD. 1. We Eee this in regard to nations. Such knowledge raises them from the degradation of sensuality and barbarity to purity and hu!Ilanity. 2. So also in regard to individ'll,(1,ls. Such knowledge ministers guidance for life, solace for the spirit, inspiration for righteousness. Thus important is it. II. SUCH KNOWLEDGE IS THE BPE0IA.L POSSESSION AND Pilil"ILEGE OF THE CHUBOH OF Goo. "In Judah is God known: his Name is great in Israel." Judah and Israel represent the Church of God, the company of believing, redeemed, God-fearing people, scattered throughout the world. Amongst them God is known by his Word, his people, his ordinances, his Spirit. III. WHERE HE IS THUB KNOWN HE 18 GREAT AMONGST THEM. Increase of know- ledge of one another, familiarity with them, by no means always increases our esteem of them ; but the more we know of God, the greater he becomes to us. See this in the Lord Jesus-the more his disciples knew of him the greater he beca.me to them. For in the past, the present, the future, he is our All.-S. C.
Ver. 7.-Thefea1· of God. Consider- L THE FORMS IT ABSUHEB, There is: 1. The fear oC terror. The dismay of the vanquished enemies of God seems specially to be pointed at here (cf. Rev. vi. 16). 2. The fear of dread. The might and majesty of God awe the soul, as they well may, 3. '!'he fear of reverence. The holy character of God, when seen, cannot but inspire this. 4. The fear of love. Such fear trembles and shrinks from causing pa.in to the object of its love. This is the sweet filial fear which is blessed indeed. It is but another form of the" love which casteth out fear." Some fear of God every soul must one dav know: which shall it be for ourselves? II. THE souna:ES WHENCE IT SPRINGS, 1. The beholding of God', Judgment on his foes. 2. The e:,;periencing of God'a mercy to ourselves. IIL THE 01l.ABAOTEB IT BEARS. 1. It will be the supreme motive of tlie soul. No matter which form it assumes, it will be the supreme motive whilst it reigns. 2. It will be e:uluaive. "Thou, even thou "-as if shutting out all other fear. IV. Tm: BLESSINGS IT BRINGS. 1. The Christian life cannot bi! begun witliout ii. ". Nor perpet=ted; for life without it has no root. 3. Nor perfected.-S. C. PB, LXXVI, 1-12.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 105
Ver. 10.-" The wrath of rn,an," By this is meant man's rage against God and age.inst God's people. Of this it is affirmed that-- I. IT PnAIBEs GoD. 'fhe Bible Is full of illustrations of this. It is part of God's universal purpose of overruling all evil for good. See this in the history of the Fall- H became the occasion of redemption. 'l'he cross of our Lord Jesus Christ-it draws all men unto him. Persecution of the Church caused its worl<l-wide extension. The corruption of the Church led to the Reformation. See the hand of God i11 history continually compelling what is "meant in malice to be changed to blessing." II. BuT IB NOT, THEREFOnE, TO BE HELD GUILTLESS. (Of. Rom. iii. 8, and St. Paul's reply.) If evil were to be held guiltless because overruled for good, then there could be no judgment of the world ; all punishment of sin now would be wrong, and all wickedness would be justified. III. BuT IB THE HEIGHT OF SINFUL FOLLY. What madness it is and has ever been found to be! IV. THE PEOPLE OF Goo ARE NOT To BE TERRIFIED BY IT. (See Job i. 12; 1 Cor. x. 13; Ps. ii.) Let them praise God for the blessed alchemy of his grace, whereby he transmutes the wrath of man into his praise.-S. C. Ver. 1.- Ways of knowing God. "In Judah is God known." This is a fitting psalm to be sung after any great national victory, any Divine deliverance. It may be associated with the victory of Jehoshaphat, or with the discomfiture of Senna.cherib (2 Chron. xx. 28; Isa. xxxvii. 36). If we associate it with Hezekiah's times, it should be noticed that the triumph over Sennacherib was, in a very special sense, a Divine triumph, and so an extraordinary revelation of God, through which he ought to have been better known by his people. Man had nothing to do with that defeat of .Assyria. God's working in it man might study. One hundred aud eighty-five thousand men are said to have been miraculously destroyed in one night, without the operation of any military agencies. Judah and Israel are mentioned together as thus coming to know God, because the two nations, which had been separated from the days of Reho- boam, were united again under Hezekiah. Here God is revealed, and so known and apprehended, by the J°udgmenes which he executes. But God's judgments are always two-sided-they relate to those who suffer under them ; and they relate to those who are delivered through them. I. THEY KNOW Goo WHO SUFFER UNDER HIS JUDGMENTB. Illustrate from the Assyrians. It is quite clear that the .Assyrian general, Habshakeh, did not know Jehovah, or he never would have put him into comparison with the gods of the nations as he did (Isa. xxx:vii. 10-13). The .Assyrians had to be taught that Jehovah was God alone; and that lesson they could only learn through such a manifestation of Jehovah's power as would declare him to stand alone. See the effect of Divine manifestation on Nebuchadnezzar (Dau. iii. 28, 29; iv. 37); Darius (Dan. vi. 26, 27). But God is known through his judgments even by his own people. Illustrative cases may be taken from the wilderness experiences, the times of Joshua, David, etc. .And it is still true for the godly individual; he has sometimes to learn to know God fu!ly by coming under Divine judgments. "J udgments" may, for the present purpose, be dii;tinguished from "afflictions" or "chastisements," as meaning "irremediable cala- mities," such as this plague on the .Assyrians. The point is an important one. The "irremediable" is more or less in every man's life; and the "irremediable" is a help to the full knowledge of God. II. THEY KNOW Goo WHO ARE DELIVERED THROUGH HIS JUDGMENTS. This leads us along more familiar and easy lines. Israel learned to know God through deliverances and redemptions. Those political and social difficulties of Hezekiah's time, which had their true rootage in mistaken views of Jehovah's relation to his people, were in part removed by the knowledge gained of God through this deliverance.-R. 'f. Ver. 2.-The localization of God. "In Salem also is his covert, anu his dwelling- r,lace in Zion" ( comp. J er. xxv. 38, "He hath forsaken his covert as the lion "). l'he poetical figure is the likening of God to a lion-the "Lion of the tribe of Judah"- who leaves his covert in Salem, and his lair in Zion, to spoil the enemy. There is now evidence that the holy cit) was known as Salem long before the time of Joshua, 106 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PS, LXltVI, 1-12.