HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers.1-72.-Whole psalm: Warnings against unbelief. I. 1TB PURPOSE. 1. To warn Ephraim; not to taunt and exult over him, but to warn. This psalm seems to belon" to the period of the disruption. Ephraim, with the other northern tribes, had broken away from Judah and from the worship of God, and this psalm seems designed, by its recital of their old sins and the consequences thereof, to warn them against like sin io the future (cf. 2 Chron. xiii.). 2. To warn Judah. If they had been greatly exalted of God, and by his presence amongst them were so still, let them take warning by Ephraim's sin, that they fall not in like mau11er. IL lTs coNTENTB. 1. After an e:r;ordium (vers. 1-4), in which he asks attention, and tells the manner of his speech, its source, and its intent; 2. He begins his history, tellin" of the covenant, and wherefore God had appointed it-, and what a failure on lsraefs part it had been (vers. 5--8). 3. Theu he gives the details of his story. He charges Ephraim as being most in fault; how they broke the covenant, refused God's Law, and forgot his works-the wonders of the Exodus and of the !i'ilde'.ness, the pillar of fire, and the water out of the rock; how they tempted God 1n spite of all, and taunted him with their unbelief as to bis power to provide them bread. 4. Then the psalm recites how God was wroth with them, anrl gave them the flesh they lusted after, but the plague along with it, letting them eat of the fruit of their own ways (ver. 31). 5. Next he tells of their miserable repentance (vers. 34-36), and how oft, nevertheless, God forgave them (vers. 38, 39). 6. Then from vers, 42-58 there is 11, PR, LX.Xvnr. 1-72.J THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 1,33
further recital of God's favour, and their ingratitude and disobedience. Then from vers. 69-67 is told the final rejection of .bphraim, Rnd from thence onward the choosing of Judah nnd of David, and the justification of that choice (ver. 72). But- III. WHAT IB THE MESSAGE OF ALL THIS FOR us TO-DAY? 1. The fearful strength of the evil heart of unbelief. Religious privilege cannot restrain it; miracles cannot convince it; nor mercies persuade it; nor awful judgments permanently change it. 2. Inquire whence deliverance from such evil heart may come. (1) Do not encourage it. Sin makes unbelief our interest-we cannot afford to believe. (2) If we have given such encouragement, by true repentance take it away. (3) Encourage faith. LP,t it be your real interest to believe, as the real believer knows it is. He loves faitb. ( 4) By constant communion keep close to God.-S. C. Ver. 2,-History a parable. In Matt. xiii. this verse is quoted as the ground of our Lord's teaching by parables. He never used fables-stories which contain the unnatural and grotesque,-but pa.rabies-stories of what were, or might have been, actual occurrences, Probably many of them were. And all history is a parable, and ought to be so used by us in teaching far more than it is; for, like the parables, history has for- I. ITS AUTHOR-God, The story of the nations often seems to be no better than a wild hurly-burly, and their wars to be no more important than, as one has said, the fightings of so many kites and crows. But such idea is the result of a merely slight and superficial observation. Deeper study would show the "Divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will." The philosophy of history is the discovery of God. II. ITS METHODS-the record of events that are ordinary, familiar, human. These aro the common groundwork of both parable and history, III. 1TB USEFULNESS-that it conveys instruction in a manner that a,rrests thought, deepens impression, awakes interest, and is retained in the memory as other forms of teaching are not. It is especially adapted for children. IV. ITB INTENT AND PURPOSE-to teach men, and to incline them to follow the ways of God. And such are- V. lTs RESULTS. For just as the result of the parables of our Lord on the minds and hearts of men is simply incalculable in the vast extent of its controlling power, so also is it with the teachings of history. Tbey have created a justjudgment and a fixed habit of mind in men, upon which most of the modern life of the nations is baset!. History-the record of expe1ience-is, after all, the Bible of mankind, and doubtless was intended so to be. We do no honour to the sacred Scriptures by our too common habit of confining our studies of the ways of God in history to its records alone. All history teaches of God, and not that of the Bible only. Happy will it be for both teachers and taught when they, as did the writer of this psalm, regard all national history as a parable of God.-S. C.
Ver. 4.-Religious education. The first eight verses of this psalm have much to say npon this great question. Upon- I. 1-rs AUTHOlllTY. '' He commanded our fathers" (ver. 5; cf. Deut. vi.). That which reason, conscience, o.nd experience would alike teach, the authority of Go,! confirms by direct command. And it is at our peril that we neglect this. The sanctions that accompany the command have not to wait for the future life for their fullllment; they nre visible everywhere in the present, as they have been in all the past. II. lTs IMPORTANCE, This entire psalm is the sad record of the results of neglecting tl1is command (see vers. 8, 40). III. lTs METHOD. 1. By entrusting this duty mainly to the parents (see ver. 5)- tbose who might naturally be expected to feel the chief interest in, and responsibility for, their children. 2. Adopting the most interesting mode of instruction-the parabolic (ver. 2); the historic (ver. 4). 3. Charging the children with the respon- sibility of transmission ( vers. 5, 6). IV. ITS HIGH AND HOLY PURPOSE. (Vars. 7, 8.)-S. C. 134 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [rs. r,xxvrn. 1-711.