HOMILETICS. Ver. 29.-Tlui heart's desire gratified. "He gave them their own desire." Three days' m~r~h from SiD:ai, at the first halting-place, where _the tabernacle wo.s first pitched aft.er qmt_tmg the plain at the foot of that holy mountain, the wandering .Arabs of the desert might gaze on the saddest, most shameful waymarks of Israel's pilgrh;nage towards ihe Land of Promise. .A row of dreary mounds marked where thousands of plague-stricken corpses had been hastily buried by the terrified survivors. As the silver trumpets again sounded, and the mourning host, with thinned rank8, marched away from the ghastly spot, they named it "Kibroth-hattanvah "-" Graves of lust." Many centuries afterwards the Holy Spirit in this psalm wrote this epitaph. I. THE HISTORY is told in Numb. xi., with that terseness and graphic power which belong to Bible narratives. The grand characteristic of those narratives, however, is not their style (though it may well be called miraculous), but this-they let us see behind the scenes; they withdraw the veil and show us God's guiding and controlling hand-in miracle, when miracles are needed, not otherwise; but no less in the ordinary course of nature and human affairs. Thus we are tauaht that when we cannot see behind the scenes, within the veil, the same hand is "always there. This terrible episode in Israel's history is one of the most signal illustrations of that profound mystery-the thwarting of God's gracious designs by man's sin and unbelief. "Design" -not that absolute purpose which must stand, let who will gainsay, but, as in nature and providence, so in the spiritual realm, the lines along which God works; the manifest fitness of things; the blessed and useful results which would certainly come about if men were trustfully obedient. In this sense, the design with which God !eel Israel forth out of Egypt is clear as day (Isa. xliiL 21). To form a nation, giving them the two main elements of civilization-<>rder and ideas:. wise, righteous order; true, noble, fruitful ideas. And this, that they might be-as they have been, spite of all their sin and failure-the religious leaders and teachers of mankind. They were a rough material-with little, perhaps, beyond the patriarchal government of their chiefs of tribes and families, and the strict discipline to which their labour in Egypt inured them, to raise them above the "mixed multitude" of fugitives who joined them in their escape from bondage. Severe training was indispensable to mould them first into an arruy of ha.rely warriors, then into a nation of industrious, God-fearing, law-abidiag free men. But had they bent to the hand that led them, listened to the voice that spoke to them, it would have been a gracious discipline. Their first lesson was the foundation- truth of religion-absolute dependence on the power and providence of the .Almighty Creator, "not far from every one of us 11 (vers. 14--16, 23, 24). Then, at the foot of Mount Sinai, even the dullest, most unbelieving, ungodly heart was constrained to feel the actual presence of the living God; and national as well as personal life definitely hung on these two principles-<>bedience to God's Law, and faith in God's promise. Stained and maimed as is the history of God's ancieat people, through their incurable, &sensate unbelief and rebellion, so faithfully confessed in their own Scriptures, it is yet the source, remote but real, of our own religious life to-nay; supplies our most touching and stirring pictures and parables of the Christian's life-journey to the bettu land. What would it have been could they have risen to the height of God's purpose, 4Ild, like Caleb," followed the Lord wholly"? Three conclusions seem so plain that I do not well know how any candid mind can avoid them. 1. That such a history-so uulike anything else-would never have been invented had it not been real. 2. That Hebrew writers would never have penned such a history of national apostasy, folly, nnd sin (of which this psalm is an epitome and specimen), uuless divinely inspired. 3. The fact that what the Bible records as God's promises have been fulfilled after the lapse of ages spite of the unbelief and opposition of those to whom they were given, cannot ratbnaiJy be accounted for except by the fact that they are in truth God's word, which cannot be broken (Numb. xxiii. 19). II. SOME SPEOIAL LESSONS FROM TIIIS PAGE OF IBBAEL 1B liISTOBY. 1. God is able to give you your "own desire." Some bidden wish, perhaps, so bold, or selfish, or wroog, or out of all ordinary range of likelihood, you dare not breathe in human ear. Yet if God spoke to you as to Solomon (2 Chron. i. 7), that is what would leap to your PB, LXXVlll, 1-72.] 'l'HE BOOK OF PSALMS. 1)1
lips. If God doea not gra.nt it, it will not be because he cannot. No need of miracle. "With God all things aro possible." Beware, therefore, how you pray! 2. God may (an~ sometimea does) grant f//1,T heart's desire, not approving, but in displeasure anJ pumshment: happy for us if it be only for chastisement; not (as in the case of Israel) fo"r destruction (Ps. cvi. 15). Not arbitrarily. The body cannot be gorged, unbridled lust sutiated, and at the same time the soul fed, the spiritual life nourished. Examples: love of wealth; amusement; success; ease. God and idols cannot both dwell in the soul's sanctuary. Sin brings its own penalty. 3. Therefore God may refuse and withlwld our heart's desire, not in anger, but in mercy and wisdom. The father will not give the stone, serpent, scorpion (Luke xi. 11, 12), even if the child asks for it. 4. The heart's desire is the test of character. What a man loves both shows what be is and moulds him. "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Heh. iv. 12). The sinful desire, Christ teaches, is sin (Ps. xix. 12; 1 John i. 8, 9). 5. There are desires which we may be sure God will satisfy: the earnest of their own fulfilment (Ps. cxlv. 19; Isa. xxvi. 8).