HOMILETICS. Ver, 13.-God'a lamentation over man's lost opportunities. "Oh that my people," etc. I Among the saddest words ever spoken are those we utter concerning what might have been. Lost opportunities; neglected duties; mischance that was within a hair- breadth of good fortune; misunderstandings that a little candour or patience would have prevented; voices we do not listen to, but whose echoes haunt us; the joy, wealth, success, love, happiness, within our grasp, ifwe had not let tbem slip ;-what a weight of meaning, depth of sadness, these put into the words," It might have been"! Ilow many lives are wearing themselves out in the gloom of failure or disappoint- ment I what countless multitudes have closed in sorrow and shame, whose whole course would have been different, if at some "parting of the ways," perhaps in the early morning of life, they bad not taken the wrong turn! A more awful depth of meaning and pathos belon~s to the closing verses of this psalm. GorI:s lamentation over man's lost opportunities. We speak of what might have been and has been; God speaks of what ought to have been on men's part, and what surely would have been on his. I. Gon's VIEW OF HUMAN LIFE. The Bible mode of regarding human life differs from the way in which we naturally look at our own lives, by the same distinction which marks off Bible history from ordinary history, Bible poetry from ordinary poetry, Bible morality or ethics from those of ordinary moralists-supreme universal reference to God. .Account for it as you please, the Scriptures in this respect stand apart from all other literature. Man n,aturally puts himself, as the old astronomers the earth, as the centre of all things. The Bible teaches him that God is the Centre as well as Source of all life (Rom. xi. 36). Even religious people talk anu think of religion as an importaTlt element in human life, essential to its true happiness, ne~lect of which is guilty and disastrous. 'fhe Bible speaks of and to men as made for God, missing the whole purpose and blessing of life if estranged from him. So while we look at what is, God's Word shows him beholding what ought to be. "\Ve picture what might have been, he tells us what would have been; we hope or fear what may be, be rel'eals what will be. \Ve are absorbed in the present; God shows us its ruot in the past, its fruit in the future (Gal. vi. 7, 8). It may be asked-What room, theu, for repentance and pardon? Is not this to throw us back under the dominion and con- demnation of law 7 Answer: God's laws are of two sorts: the law of love and duty, fulfilled by willing obedience, which, therefore, man can disobey and break; and natural laws-spiritual as well as material-which cannot be broken. For Gud to set them aside would be to destroy, not to save. E.g. the thief, the liar, the drunkard, may repent of his sin, and God will pardon it; but the restoration of confidence, anu conscious sense of honesty, or the regaining of health destroyed by intemperauce, can come only by the practice of the appropriate virtues. II. THE REAL TURNING-POINT OF LIFE. God's own voice here sets forth the blessings which Israel not only might, but certainly would, have enjoyed, if they had not flung them away wilfully, ungratefully, ma,lly (vers. 14-16). What, then, hin- dered? Where was the false step-" the parting of the ways"? Answer: vers. 11, 12. This was the secret of all Israel'~ calamities and misery. Note that the Revi~cd VerRion here uses the present and thefuture (vcrs. 13-16). The Hebrew equally admits this rendering; nothing forbids our combining both meanings. But the refer- ence of the whole psalm is to the past. It begins with a shout of joy, referriug to the F~ast of Trumpets, the beginning of the (civil) year, and the Feast ot' Tabernacles, at full moon of the same month. Then looks back to the institution of these festivals, the Law of Moses, the deliverance from Egypt. Then to the whole subsequent bi~tllry- one long record of rebellion and ingratitude (Jer. xxii. 21). 170 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PB, LXXXI, 1-16.
'l'he J.F.ssoK is for us (1 Cor. x. 11). By "turning-point of lifo" I mean not some one rat.al crisis, at some specie.I. time (though such there are, in many lives) but the guiding force, determini~g motive, master principle, which gives character to 'each day as 11·ell as to the whole life; makes each step an advance in the right path or an error. (?bedi~e to t~e v?ice of. God. 1. In his W?rd (~ohn x. 27; xii. 47-50). 2. \ o,1sc1euce, which 1s the mward echo of Gods voice. 3. His providence. 4. Hie ::ip_1nt, who alone can give the hearing car and understanding heart. Here is eome- thmg sadder yet: "Israel would none of me" (John v. 40, 42; viii. 47), '1.'o disobey, to wander, to 1?8 lost, _you. need not resolve on self-destruction ; you need only to be careless, let thmgs drift, like one who sleeps when his boat is drifting towarJs tho rapids. You ~n be careless. God cares. "Oh that my people," etc. I (Luke xix. 41, 42 ; Matt. nm. 37).