The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 2 — Section 365

I. WH, mn Gon CREATE MAN? Many think that life is not worth living. Exist- cnee is so much pure misfortuno. 'l'he denial of the Christian faith and hopele8S pessimism seem ever to go together. But a preliminary question may be askecl- 1Yh~- q.id God create anything? IT. WE REPLY : 1. God is love, and one necessity of such nature is that he should find objects on which to lavish that love. It cannot remain unexercised, Creation, there- fore, seemed to be a necessity of love. 2. But another need is that such love should meet with response. Love yearas for response, to be met by an answerina love. But Ibis involved the necessity of the creation of beings who should not be moved by mere instinct, but should possess mind, intelligence, and the capacity of love, Hence wa.s requisite something more than any of the already created inhabitants of the seas, tb~ air, or the land, could supply. A different, a higher being had to be brought into existence; man was needed, since he only could render the response the heu.rt of the Creator desired. All other creatures could obey the laws of their being; man could love the Law-giver. 3. And yet another craving of the Divine love, as of all like pure love, is for worthy response. It cannot bear that the response it yearns for should be given to inferior objects; it desires to be chosen ancl preferred above all these. But such worthy response of deliberate choice can only be made when counter- objects or attraction are present. Therefore, that such choice may be possible for us, we are placed in a world where all arouwl us are myriad lures and baits appealing to all sides of our nature, and many of theiu with mighty power. Hence is it that the love of his people is so precious in his esteem, for it means that they have turned their backs upon all these rivals of God, and have giveu to him ths love he asks for and deserves. 4. ..tlnd even this lOfJe is capable of enhancement in his esteem, It is so when, as with Job, it clings to God iu spite of sorest trial and distress; when the man is in the very depths, when to all outward appearance everything is lost and thrown away by ,mch clinging to God; when it has to hang on by naked faith, as at some time or other it has had to do iu all God's saints, and with some of them, as in the martyr ages, it has had to be al ways so. But love like that, oh how precious is it I how grateful to the heart of God! We can understand somewhat of this when some dear child of our., rather than grieve or disappoint us, has readily endured persecution and pain. What do we not think of that child? What proof of our love will we withhold from him ? 5. But such proof of our love, or of that of God, cannot be given unless there has been the previous trial. And that is why we are placed in a world of trial, often cruel, prolonged;and severe. We are thus given the opportunity of winning the highest prizes of the kingdom of Goel. Hence man has to go "forth to his work, nnd to bis labour until the evening." Life is no child's play for him, no place of mere sensuous enjoyment. If he chooses to m:ike it so, he shuts himself out of the kingdom of God. No cross, no crown. Only so can we win back the image of God in which we were first created. This is" the prize of our high calling."-S. C. Ver. 30.-Voices of the spring. We are following a good Bible precedent, as well as yielding to an almost irresistible suggestion, when we seek to listen awhile to some of those teachings of God which he ad.dresses to us through the spring. The references to this season are frequent in the pages of Scripture. They tell of the sowing and the seed-time, the springing of the corn, and the varied voices, scenes, and processes of the spring. He who wrote that sixty-fifth psalm had often noticed the earth upturned by the plough, and how the rain loosened the clods, and the hard ridges were made soft with showers, and settled down to the level of the furrows after the corn-seed haJ been cast in, and so God blessed" the springing thereof." And he who wrote this psalm from which our text is taken, had often witnessed the wonderful bursting forth of life after the winter was over and gone, and he here celebrates God's mighty working: " Thou sen<lest forth thy Spirit, and they are created: thou renewest the face of the earth." And the eye of our Lord, the great Teacher, once and again fell upon some ~ower in the spring-time going forth to sow, and he tells, in the first of all hie parables, of the varied fate of the scattered Eeed. And he tells, too, how the devil knows the fit season for sowing seed; for when the great husbandwan had cast good seed into his field, then the enemy came and sowed tares, which, when the good seed sprang up, appeared along with it to its hurt and harm, From beginning to end, by our Lord PB, OIV, 1-36.) 'l'HE IlOOK 01!' PSALMS. 407 ---------------------------· and by his apostles, and by the holy men of old who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, the alh1Rions to the seed-time and the spring are constant, and they constHute e. posHive direction to us to keep open eye and mind and heart for the lessons such sea.sons have to impart. 'fhose lessons are very many. We can but note u few of them. And- I. DOES NOT BPilING SPEAK TO UB OF Goo AS THE LORD AND GIVER OF LIFE? For: 1. Life is starting from every pore of nature. The whole face of the earth heaves and throbs with nn inexho.ustible tide of life; every spot teems with the beginnings of new life. Who does not feel impressed with the unspeakable affiuence of him ,vho is its fountain ? Every wood and grove, every hedgerow and field, every garden and pasture, bear witness to his bounty. Where but a few weeks before all was sombre and silent, bare, and seemingly lifeless, now, what a change has come over the scene ! The grey clouds of winter have been replaced by the bright blue skies, the brown carpet of fallen leaves has yielded to the beautiful green with which the grass has covered the woodland ways. The till now hushed grove is resonant with song and the murmur of innumerable insects. The bare skeleton-like branches of the trees are laden with glorious foliage, and the stripped hedges are all clothed again with leaves and blossoms and flowers. Fulness of life everywhere; this is the common character- istic which meets the eye throughout the whole realm of nature at this beautiful season of the year. 2. .And with what wondrO'US care all this is accomplished! As Hilently,. as irresistibly as the tender blade pushes its way up through the heavy soil which, one would think, must for ever hold it down. But slender as is that newly formed blade, yet to that which bath no might God increaseth strength, and so in due time it appears above ground, for God maketh it to grow. 3. .dnd how quietly aU this goes en 1 What a contrast to the noise and strain, the fret and toil, the loud din, and all the other accompaniments of man's strenuous labour I Here, as was said of Solomon's temple- " No hammer fell, no ponderous axes rung; Like some tall palm the mystic fabrio sprung." 4. But whilst all this is interesting to observe in the natural world, it is yet more delight- ful to look upon the Divine energy of life which each spring-tide shows as a promise and pattern of the higher spiritual life, which, with equal generosity, God shall one day cause to spring forth before all the nations. Why should it not be ? If all this fulness of life be for the lower creation, shall the higher, the moral and spiritual, be left unblessed? "If God so clothes," etc. True, the lower life has to do with material thiags, and the higher with spiritual. But can that be any bar to him who called us into being, even as each spring he calls into being the full life we see around us? If, in consistency with that lower nature, he gives the new life, can he not, in consistency with man's higher nature, cause that also to be born again and to enter into the new and better life? He has done so already with one and another of us, even as he did with all the children of God in all the ages all along. Iu perfect harmony with man's freedom, he yet found means to convert, regenerate, and fully sanctify such as Paul, John, and myriads more. And-all glory to his Name I-he is doing this every day. Therefore we accept, not deny or doubt, the blessed prophecy of the spring. And let us each one take it for ourselves. II. As Lovrno ALL THAT Is BEAUTIFUL. See the wealth of beauty which every- where spring presents, in colour; song; fragrance; beauty everywhere. Then, if God so loves beauty, let him have it. In our worship, our sanctuaries, most of nil in our character. In this last God himself will help us. The beauty of the Lord our God shall be upon us even as, and yet more than, it is upon all the grace of nature in this blessed spring-tide. Ill. As PREDICTING .£.ND PROMISING THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. (Cf. 1 Cor. xv.) If God gives new life and for!ll t~ bare grain, shall he not to human souls? "And to every seed its own body." Sprmg 1s the perpetual rcsurrect10n-parable. IV. As ADDRESSING TO us :M0S'l' EARNEST APPEAL. "Work while it is called to-day;" "Now is the accepted time," etc. If the husbandman waste the spring season, wllat hope of harvest can he have? Its days run aloag, and will soon be gone.-S. C.