HOMILETICS. Ver. 1.-God's sovereignty. "The Lord reigneth." To a thoughtful, loving, earnest Christian heart, the spectacle of prevailing disorder, wrong, misery, in this wt,rld (to-day as in past ages) is a source of sometimes almost unbt,arable wonder and grief. Then it is unspeakable consolation to remember " the Lord reignetb " (Ps. xi. 3, 4). As from bis own i;in and tr011ble be takes refuge in God's love; so from the apparent triumph of evil, in God's riahteous rule. God's Kingship or sovereignty involves these three: (1) supreme power°; (2) rightful authority; (3) exercise of this power and authority in actual government. I. SUPREME POWER. " If we speak of strength, lo! he is strong." " With God e.ll things are possible." No design, no emergency, to which his power is not equal. He is the Source-the Creator-of all other power. The forces of nature, the wills and faculties of men-of all creatures lower or higher than men-have their,root and being in him; hang on his sovereign ~ill (Ps. xxxiii. 8, 9). We must not thii:ik of God's power apart from bis wisdom (Ps. cxlvii. 5). Nor of these apart from his love (Pa. cxlv. 9, 10). Blind unconscious force-the universe of atheism-is the most frightful of all conceptions. Force guided by loveless wisdom is nn impossible idea, for it would have no motive for exercise. But it is "the Lord" who reigns; and "God is love." II. RIGHTFUL AUTHORITY. The righteous self-evident claim to absolute and universal obedience. Power without right would be tyranny. Right without power would be an empty shadow-crown without sceptre. The right to obedience, and power to enforce it (or punish disobedience), together make up authority. Therefore to tho~ a~tributes of power, wisdom, and love, we must add righteo·1snese. "The sceptre of. his kmgdom is a right sceptre.'' While nature and 8cri1iture procl:iim that he does reign, PA. xovn. 1-12.J THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 3.'3l
reReon 11nd conscience declare that he ought to reign. 1. The ricrht of absolute owner- ship is his (Ps. c. 8). He li11e created us. 2. Of i11finite benefaction. All we have or hope for, or ever can enjoy, is his free gift. 8. Of perfect and sole fitness, infinite ability, to rule the universe he h11s created 11nd owns. Knowledge which nothing, grcnt or small, escapes. Power which. upholds all in being, and which, if be please to exert it, none can resist. Goodness which no dem11nd can overtax. III. AoTUAL EXER0IBE OF aovERNMENT. (Ps. ciii. 19.) "He doeth accordincr to his will," etc. (Dan. iv. 35). He has bound all nature with a chain of love which natural forces a.ad existences cannot even seek to break. He has given to man and other spiritual creatures, with reason to apprehend duty, and conscience to approve our fulfilment or condemn our neglect, a will endued with the mysterious power of disobeying his law, resisting his will. Without this we should be incapable of willing, reasonable, loving, conscientious obedience. Men therefore do di8obey God; and the direct result of disobedience is the misery and death which fill our world (Ja.s. i. 13-15). But man's disobedience cannot relax God's authority, or alter the fact that over all he reigns and rules. And this supreme authority is in tb.e bands once nailed to the cross (John v. 22, 23; Matt. xxviii. 18; Eph. i. 21-23; Rev. v. 12, 13). Ver. 10.-The hatred of sin. "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil." On the darkest, most puzzling of all questions-the origin of evil-tb.e Bible leaves us quite in the dark. Old and New Testaments are alike silent. Tb.is would be very astonishing if the purpose of Scripture were to make deep philosophers or subtle theologians. We cease to wonder when we understand, what people have come to see more clearly in these days than formerly, that tb.e object of God's Word is to "make wise unto salv11tion;" to teach us to know God and to know ourselves, and to bring us home to God. In a. word, it is the very same as the angel declared to be tb.e purpose of the Incarnation, "He shall save his people from their sins" (Ma.tt. i. 21). Therefore, while the Bible is dumb as to all questions of curiosity, it has a plain answer to such practical questions as, "What is sin? How ought we to regard it r" Sin in conduct is disobedience to God; in character, unlikeness to God. Thi, first sin was an act of deliberate disobedience. Sin in every form is "that abominable thing" which our Father hates. 'l'herefore we ought to ba.te it with perfect hatred. "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil 1" We may take these words (1) as a description ; (2) as a command. I. HATRED OF BIN A 0HARA0TERISTIO FEATURE OF THOSE WHO LOVE Goo. It is to be expected of them; is peculiar to them ; is a mark by which they may be known. It may be objected that this hatred of evil is felt by multitudes who make no pretence tQ ,love God. -Every juBt man hates injustice--to others as much as to himself. Every benevolent man hates cruelty; every honest man, knavery; every sober man, intemper- ance; every one of pure life, impurity. All this without reference to God. Thi, is so; and just here lies the difference. The Bible deals with evil not merely as wrong don!l to man, but :first and foremost as sin against God. So the sinner is taught to see it (Ps. Ii._ 1-4). So the saint laments it in otb.ers (Ps. cxix. 136, 158). So God rega~<ls,jJ;,il;io~ m.Judgipg_~nd in_ pardoning (Ps. 1. 21; Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7; Hos. vii. 2; Ps. x:uii. l-, :2). 'l'o set fr;i,rtJi, thee coµiple~e teaching of Scripture on this would be practically to quote the whole Bible. If we wanted a title for the Scriptures, we might write on the back, "The story of sin, 11nd how God deals with it." Ueal hatred of sin, then, springs from the Holy Spirit's teaching. An ungodly man may hate and despise many kinds of sin; but not as sin-breaking God's Law, dishonouring Go,l, hateful in his sight, inconsistent with love to him. So also an ungodly heart may admire and <ielight in many kinds of goodness; but not because goodness and bolines, are Go,l's likeness, the fulfilment of his Law, and pleasing to him. Love of what God loves; hatred of what God hates ;-this is the supreme test of character; in one word, sympathy with God (John xiv. 21, 24). Our Saviour is in this, as in all else, our perlect Model. His habitual calm and gentleness, the stress ho lays on doing good to those who bate or injure us, 11nd his meek submission to immeasurable wrong, arc jl,,llt to conceal from us his unsparing condemnation of sin. No denunciations of Old Testament prophets are more severe than our Lord's warnings concerning the impenitent cities, the hypo- critical Pharisees, the guilty city of Jerusalem, the un[aithful servants. Nothing in the Bible is more terrible than bis words to those who have tried to combine religio~ 332 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [t>s, XCVII, 1-12