Ver. 11.-Divine judgments on the unbelieving. "They should not enter into my rest." As the reference is clearly to the murmurings of the Israelites at Meri bah, the " rest" referred to can only be the anticipated rest of settlement in the promised land of Canaan. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews finds a further meaning, or rather suggestion, in the word; but we may seek for the first and direct teaching of the passage. 1. Notice tho.t God is said to have been grieved with the effort made to test or tampt him; but his grief is not to be thought of as distress, it is rat.her that ho was "moved with indignation," ntqd therefore found an immediate and severe judgment necessary. 2. Notice that the basis of all the wrong in Israel is recognized as unbelief; 318 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PS, XCV, 1-11,
but thn.t is not here o.n iatellectun.l sin, it is a heart-sin; it is not "inability to believe," it is "uatrustfulaess," aad untrustfulness when God had laid down such abundant grounds for their trust. 3. Notice that the judgment fell upon the generation, and not upon the race. In all God's judgments that recognize personal failings, we may find personal suffering and loss, but no frustration of the Divine purposes. The untrust- ful generation died in the wilderness; but the race, in good time, entered and possessed the "rest" of Canaan. 4. Notice that our own human feelings enahle us to understand the Divine indignation. All good men love to be trusted. You can never so sorely try a good man as by failing to trust him. This applies even more strongly to those who are in close, loving, family relations with us. The supreme iudianity, to our humble view, is a son failing to trust a good mother. Work out the variois relations in which God, the infinitely Good One, stood to Israel, and stands to us; and so bring to view the shame of our untrustfulness, and the reasonableness of our coming under disci- plining Divine judgments.-R. T.
Vers. 1-11.-Ptdilic worship-its necessity and advantage. I. lTs NATURE. 1. Thanksgiving and praise. (Vers. 1, 2.) We need special seasons for thinking over our privileges and cultivating gratitude, and the utterance of the spirit of praise. 2. .Adoration and prayer. (Ver. 6.) God's love thus a cause for our cleansing. Christ's promises and grace inexhaustible. Who can drink the river of his love dry? Confession and supplication. 3. Listening to the voice of God. (Ver, 7.) In his spoken Word and in our own hearts. Hearing what God speaks to us is as much worship as our speaking to God. II. REASONS OF WORSHIP. L God's supremacy. (Vers. 3-5.) Here is the theme of the loftiest praise; a reason for the largest prayers; and an argument for sub- mission to his perfect will. 2. Goa's tender guardianship. "He is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand." Intimate relationship to him: "our God." Living upon his bounty: "people of his pasture." We are being guided by him: "sheep of his band." 3. Goa's oath against those who are hardened. "Unto whom I swlll"e in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest." 4. He is the Bock of our salvation. (Ver. 1.) The eternal Foundation and Shelter of the soul-S. Vers. ~6.-The material universe and ita lessons, "In his hand are the deep places of the earth : the stren,,ath of the hills is his also, The sea. is his, and he ma.de it; and his hands formed the dry land." The material universe suggests- L TBE PROFOUND MYSTERY OF SELF-EXISTENCE, Is it eternal, self-existent; or has it come from God in the way of direct creation or evolution? Self-existence an impossible conception, whether of the universe or of God; but it is also impossible to avoid it and find a substitute; only impossible to conceive of two self-existences, ll. IF THE UNIVERSE IS EVOLVED FROM GoD, THEN IT HUST BE A REVELATION OF PABT OF BIS NATURE. Shows that God takes delight in material strength and beauty as well as in spiritual. The infinite variety of conceptions embodied. The infinite Bkill in the construction of the infinitely little and the infinitely great. But this only of a part of his nature, and that not the highest. Ill. MANIFESTATION OF POWER. "Who by his strength setteth fast the mountains, beina girded with power." Seas and mountains only functional examples of his power. The"'vastness of the universe. The child that Augustine saw ladling the sea into a hole ia the sand. "Not more impossible than for you to empty the universe into your intellect." IV. TBE KATEBI.AL UNIVERSE GENEBATEB IN UB THE BENSE 01' WEAKNESS AND INSIGNIFICANCE. But mind, conscience; heart, are the only things that are eternally great. Moun ta.ins will melt, and seas dry up. "He is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand." "It is he that bath made us, and not we ourselvea." We are his c.'iildren.-S. PB, ICVI. 1-13.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 319