The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 2 — Section 237

Ver. 1~--" Make us [!lad." No~e can over-estimate the blessing that God's gift of gladness 1s to U!'. How 1t s~·eetens rntercourse, encourages work, lightens our burdens, nn~ helps us ov:er many a difficult place! But there are forms of gladness to which no prn1~e can be g1l"en. The laughter of fools is like "the crackling of thorns under a pot ":--so sa:v:s Eccle_siastes. And the gladness of evil men over evil has poison in it, notw1thstandmg all its loudness. And all mere man-made gladness is without perma- nence or power t.o really help. The gladness that is of God's making, that is what the psalmist prayed for, and for which we also m~y well pray. Therefore let us observe its elements, in w bat it consists. And the full"'' ing verses of the psalm clearly tell this. I. Goo's WORK MUST APPEAR TO us. That is, God's salvation-for that is empha- tically his "work," and must be seen by us, and seen as our salvation. Here is the primary essential of all trne gladness. II. His GLORY ALSO. " And thy glory unto," etc. That is, God must be seen to be the delight and joy of the soul. David speaks of God as "God, my exceeding joy." This is what is craved in Ps. !xiii., "To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have," etc. The soul must learn to delight itself in the Lord, as it will if the glory of God be seen. III. THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD OUR Goo MUST BE UPON us. That is, the gracious- ness, gentleness, and goodness of the Lord's character; its purity, holiness, truth, and righteousness;-tbese, which constitute the beauty of the Lord, and which are so mighty in their attraction, that one asks, "Whom have I in heaven but thee?" (Ps. xvi.); these must be upon us. They are the adornment of the doctrine of God our Saviour. They were, and are, all seen in Christ, and they irresistibly draw all men unto him. And unless in some measure they are upon us, God cannot make us glad. 'fheir absence kills all gladness. IV. Oun WORK MUST BE ESTADLlSHED. "The work of our hands, establish thou it." To know that we are not labouring in vain, that when we let down the net Chdst will give the draught, yea, does so; this is his establishing our work, and by it God does make us glad. CoNCLUSION. Pray this prayer for your own sake, for your work's sa.ke, for Christ"11 sake ; for gladness wins maoy hearts.-S. C. Ver. 1.-God a Dwelling-place. God our Home; the soul's Home. There seem to be no sufficieot reasons for rejecting the Mo,aic authorship of this psalm; but this much appears to be cert.a.in-the associations of the time of Moses form the machinery of the psalm; and there are no other associations which fit to it so well. J?uring the last forty years of his life, and during the long years of the desert-wandenngs for Israel, the people bad no home, no resting-place; they were constantly moving to and fro; and yet God was caring for them, preserving them from harm ; God was their Home. A modern preacher has said," There is one thing runs through the whole of the Scriptures which is above every other that was ever before the Hebrew mind-it is that in which God is represented as the Dwelling-place of hie people, as the Home of the soul. It is an awful, incomprehensible, infinite thought; yet we can feel it and know it, not in the same sense as if we were Buddhists or Brahmins, but, while awed by the grandeur, never losing our personality in the infiniteness of the thought. All things _in nature seem to abide ever, constant and unchangeable, but they only seem. All thmgs have the stamp of insecurity upon them; but how confidently secure God's people stand in the eternal relationship of God to them!" See what thoughts we aseocia.te with home, and how far these may be applied to God as our "Home," our "Dwelling- place." I. HoME 1s A PLACE OF RELATIONSHIPS. Man enters into a variety of connections with bis fellows ; but his relationships, sanctified by love and service, centre in hie PB. XO, 1-17.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 263