Ver. 9.-fie sole Object of worship. This verse recalls to mind the second recitation of the Decalogue in Deut. v, "In ver. 9 the key-note of the revelation of the Law from Sinai is struck; the fundamental command which opens the Decalogue demanderl. fidelity to Jehovah, and forbade idol-worship as the sin of sins." The claim of Jehovah on the Israelites needs to be precisely described. God, as El, was very generally, perhaps universally, known. But men went wrong, in relation to him, when they began to make representations of him. Then two things happened: (1) different representations became fixed to different localities and countrits; and (2) the represen- tations came to be worshipped, ratber than the spiritual Being whom they represented. Israel was selected, as a nation, to preserve for I.be world the imperilled primary truth of the unity and spirituality of God. So two things are firmly asserted as the basis of God's revela tiou of his will to Israel. I. Goo IS THE ONE Goo OF TRE WHOLE EARTII. "Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord." "The God of the whole earth shall he be called." There are no such things as "stran~e gods." .An idol is a "nothing," a. "vanity." God is God alone. See tbe importance of this for Israel. Looking on the nations around them, tbey might imagine tbat the gods of tho nations were doing better for them than Jehovah was doing for his people, and so they n:ig.bt be tempted to join service to these strange gods with &t'rvice to Jehovah. So they must learn that God was really the God of all nations; the one and only true God. In view of our work among the heathen, we still must hold fast this primary and fundamental truth-there is buc one God; and he is as truly the God of the heathen as of the civilized and the Christianized. II. GoD IS THE ONE OBJECT OF HUMAN WORSHIP. Man must worship. He feels depeudcnt. He must look out of himself for some one on whom to lean. He must be sure that he on whom he leans is absolutely tru~tworthy. There never can be m,ire than one absolutely trustworthy Being. If right ideas be attached to God, we must feel that there can only be one God. He must be the perfect realization of our highest conceptions; and therefore our admiration and our dependence will unite to make him the sole Object of worship. He who knows God wants to worship no other.-R. T. Ver. 10.-Suificiency in God. "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." What- soever be the needs or the desires of God's people, there is abundance of grace for the supplying of the needs, and the satisfying of the desires. Compare our Lord's saying to his disciples, "Hithtrto have ye asked nothing in my Name; ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." The figure in the text is explained in Thomson's • Land and the Book.' "It is said to have been a custom in Persia, that when the king wishes to do a visitor e~pecial honour, he desires him to open his mouth wide, and the king then crams it full of sweetmeats, and sometimes eveu with jewels. And to this day it i11 a mark of politeness in Orientals to tear off the daiutiest bits of meat for a guest, and either lay them before him, or put them in his mouth." In declaring himself to be Israel's God, and demanding the sole and entire worship of the people, Jthova.h graciously adds the assurrrncc, that he is at once able and willing to meet and supply all their need. He could not ask their enLire trust if he was not efficient to meet all their wants. There was no call to seek the help of any strange god, for they were in 176 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. (PS, LXXXI. 1-18.
no srnse straitened in Jehovah. This subject may be applierl to Christians by taking illustrntions, from the history of Israel's wanderings, of the following points. I. SuFFICIE1:1CY 11:1 GoD FOR lsRA_EL's KNOWN NEEDS. These concerned (1) daily supply; (2) wise guidance; (3) efficient defence; ( 4) patient bearing with infirmities; (5) provision for social relations and national requirements. So we can never think of any want we ha'l"'e that is beyond God's supply. II. SuFFIOIENCY IN Gon FOR lsRAEL's UNKNOWN NEEDS. For our real needs are not those we find out for ourselves. Those are our superficial needs, and often not even real needs. I_t introduces a surprise of grace to say there is the supply in God of al( the needs of '.'·h1ch he knows and we do not. Often it is God's supplying us that bnogs the consciousness of the need. How good that God's grace is not limited by our knowleclge! III. SUl•'FICIENGY IN GOD IS ASSOCIATED WJTII GOOD WILL. That gets expression iu graciou8 and satisfying assurances and promises.-R. T.
Ver. 11.-The sin of self-will. Observe that the sin of which complaint is here made is not that Israel did not hearken, but that Israel would not hearken. God goes in behind the acts of disobedience, and is concerned with the spirit of wilfulness which found expression in the acts. The judgment of God upon them brings to view the special feature of their sin. "So I gave them up to the obduracy of their heart, that they sbould walk in their own counsels'' (ver. 12). I. SELF-\l'JLL AS THE SI!, I~'TO WHICH MEN FELL. Self-will IS the p~rverted use of free-will. Free-v.'ill could be self-will if man were an independent creature. Free- will must not be self-will, because man is a dependent creature. Free-will became self-will, beca11se man allowed himself to be guided by what seemed "pleasant to the eyes and good for food," rather than by what be knew to be the will of him on whom he depended. Serving himself is the essence of sin for one who has been made dependent-in every way dependent-upon God. What we have to counteract is the delusion that man is an independent being, and therefore may "follow the devices and desires of bis own heart." Illustrate from Dao. v. 28. II. SELF-WILL AS THE SIN FROM WRICH MEN ARE DELJVERD:D. There are penaltit·s into which men have brought themselves by their self-will, and from these they need to be delivered. But it would be no effective redemption that dealt only with penalties. Deliverance from self-willedness, in a dependent creature, can only be effected by making him on whom he depends so infinitely attractive that he wins full trusL and obedience. And this is accomplished by God's manifestation of himself to men in the Person, life, and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ill. SELF-WILL .AS THE BIN INTO WHICH THE REDEEMED ARE IN DANGER OF FALLING RACK. Illustrate froru the Israelites, as redeemed unto the service of Jehovah, from Egypt. Bring out (1) the open ways, and (2) the subtle ways, in which nowadays Christians may be tempted to the self-trust which breaks them away from their dependence on God.-R. T.