Sermon Bible Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Psalm 106:15 It is an awful circumstance, and yet it is true, that our mercies may be our curses; that our desire may prove our ruin. The man, you will say, who has obtained the object of his desire, whether through prayer or toil, ought to be happy. He sows, and reaps abundantly; he casts his nets into the sea, and brings them up full of fish; all his bargains end in gain: he might have in his possession the philosopher's stone, which turns all it touches into gold. But there is a dark set-off against all this. When you come to look down through the man's circumstances into himself, you find what the psalmist here terms leanness; and by leanness he means waste, emaciation, loss of strength and beauty. What is this leanness? How shall we discover its presence in ourselves or others? I. By its trust in outward things. You hardly need to be told that one of the dangers which always beset us is that of placing our confidence in things that are in our sight and within the reach of our hand. And the more these things multiply around us, the greater our danger becomes. Grace is needed by every man, but great grace is needed by the man who gets his request. The eclipsing power of success is fearful. II. Another symptom of spiritual leanness, and one of the results of having our request, is self-pleasing. We do not live in a heroic age. Like men under the influence of a Southern climate, our stamina is becoming deteriorated. We covet rest rather than labour, enjoyment rather than self-sacrifice for our own real good or that of others. It is no calumny to say that pleasure is the god of our times, and that men are shrinking more and more from everything which involves self-oblivion and self-sacrifice. But this spirit defeats itself. Pleasure sought for its own sake is difficult to find, more difficult still to retain, and becomes more coy and unattainable the more the pursuit of it becomes the aim and the business of life. III. Loss of sympathy with all that helps to build up the spiritual life. There is no life save that of God Himself which possesses a self-perpetuating power; and though the life which is begotten in us by faith is the highest on earth, even that is not immortal if it be denied the food which has been provided for it. Our text speaks to us as with the voice of a trumpet, and rings out the great and impressive truth that we cannot be too guarded in our petitions or in our desires for merely temporal things. Beyond necessaries all else should be sought in very humble and willing subordination to the will of God. For who of us knows what beyond these is good for us? E. Mellor, In the Footsteps of Heroes, p. 106. The principle of the text applies:— I. To the man who starts life with an idea that to be rich is the highest result of labour. II. To all who would escape from painful duty in order that they may indulge love of ease and quiet. III. To men who make all their arrangements with a view to the comfort of their physical tastes exclusively. IV. The judgment of God falls on the highest nature; it falls on the soul. The man on whom God's disapprobation rests withers at his very root. His mental power declines; his moral nature shrivels; he goes down in the volume and quality of his being. V. The great lesson from this text is to say from the heart, with trembling yet earnest love, "Not our will, but Thine, be done." The school in which this great lesson can be learned is called the Cross. Parker, City Temple, 1870, p. 147. Psalm 106:19I. The mixture of infirmity and strength, of earnest aim and second motive, among the people of God, is, and must ever be, a matter of anxious question; and it is for that, among many other things, that the people of God cry out for the great Resurrection, and look with love to His appearing. The very grace and virtue with which a man strives is paled by vice directly its contradictory, and the very point which seems to be a man's strong point becomes his weak one. In a general view Aaron appears before us as the first high-priest, the elaborator with Moses of the great ceremonial of the early Church. Yet Aaron could worship an idol; and with the mind which had been inspired to celebrate the sacred worship, and with the hand which had been aiding in its construction, he could devise and work the golden calf. II. The conflicts of Aaron with Moses are very remarkable. There is a mixture of respect and jealousy in the conduct of the high-priest which excites our surprise. We find Aaron and Miriam conspiring against the authority of Moses, and that from a manifest feeling of jealousy. With a heaven-sent commission to respect the elevated position of Moses, Aaron nevertheless in the most singular way opposed the authority and assailed the office of the lawgiver. III. These contradictions are not uncommon among the people of God; but the singular circumstance is that it is not simply the inconsistency which we are struck with, but the actual contradiction given to the leading virtue by the contrary vice appearing in the same character. There is more than one way of accounting for this. (1) The presence of a leading tendency to good throws many men off their guard with respect to some virtue; and unfenced on the side of the correlative vice, they the more easily fall. (2) The fact of official position and responsibility is the real cause of our high expectations and estimate of the character. (3) When the mind is steadily and almost exclusively directed to one great object, there is always a tendency to err on the side of neglect of duty in respect of that very object. Few objects of human contemplation or study will bear such close investigation as to appear the more true and certain by deeper investigation. We live on a surface. The ripple reflects light and brilliance, and the belt of waters below moves in a dull and sullen mass. A deeper insight disappoints. So it is that the man whose vocation is clear and definite will err in indefiniteness in that very vocation, and inconsistency will constantly run in a parallel line with the fulfilment of the daily vocation. E. Monro, Practical Sermons, vol. i., p. 519. Psalm 106:24I. Without the promised land, what was the life of Moses? What was the life of the people? In reading the Scripture account, the general impression is of a very weary, hard-worked life for Moses; much disappointment, vexation, and trouble; hard work and little thanks for it. And it is true. His martyrdom when he lost his throne, his forty years of daily self-abasement in the wilderness, did end for him in this fierce, patient penalty of leading a mean people on the way to greatness, with all the present pain and nothing to compensate for the pain, saving only the feeling within of stronger life day by day for himself, clearer sight of God, a calmer heart, a greater self-mastery, with the sweetness of such liberty in his soul; and, next, the certainty of working with God, which made all the labour, all the suffering, the joy of the champion for the King he loved; and, lastly, the promised land, the blessing of Abraham coming true, the sweet conviction of victory and peace. II. The promised land first and the Messiah, the King, who was to reign over them in the promised land—these two thoughts were the daily joy and hope of every Israelite who was not a traitor. And the bitter accusation of treason brought against them by the psalmist was, "Yea, they thought scorn of that pleasant land." The Israelite in the wilderness looked on the promised land with exactly the same present feeling that a man now looks forward to success in his profession. There was to be no change whatever in them, only change in their circumstances. We shall never live life truly till we have got our going home into the same practical, true groove that they had. E. Thring, Uppingham Sermons, vol. ii., p. 424. References: Psalm 106:24.—H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Waterside Mission Sermons, 2nd series, p. 193. Psalm 106:44, Psalm 106:45.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii., No. 1886. Psalm 106:48I. "Amen" is a word of which all the associations are, or ought to be, interesting. (1) With this word did our Lord Jesus Christ Himself introduce most of His most impressive revelations. By this term, expressing certainty, faithfulness, unchangeable truth, He embodied in daily utterance that which on one occasion at least He expanded into a doctrine—"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen"—with a positiveness of intuition and insight belonging to Him, and to Him only, who is at once He that came down from heaven and the Son of man who is in heaven. (2) In this word does St. Paul gather up the whole sum of the revelations of Christ and say, "All the promises of God in Him are Yea, and in Him Amen." (3) By this same word does the beloved disciple St. John actually designate the very person of his Master: "These things saith the Amen," etc. II. The force and significance of the word must vary: (1) with the place in which it occurs in our services; (2) according to the mind of the worshipper by whom it is used. III. The conditions of joining rightly in this particular part of our service are the same with those which we know to be the conditions of public worship in general. You must be desirous of meeting God. You must be desirous of finding God. You must come with that desire and stay with that desire. C. J. Vaughan, Memorials of Harrow Sundays, p. 150. References: Psalm 106:48.—J. Percival, Some Helps for School Life, p. 177. Psalm 107:4-7.—Clergyman's Magazine, vol. xx., p. 86. Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? who can shew forth all his praise?
Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times.
Remember me, O LORD, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation;
That I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance.
We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.
Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea.
Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.
He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness.
And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
And the waters covered their enemies: there was not one of them left.
Then believed they his words; they sang his praise.
They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel:
But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.
And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.
They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the saint of the LORD.
The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram.
And a fire was kindled in their company; the flame burned up the wicked.
They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image.
Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.
They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt;
Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea.
Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.
Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word:
But murmured in their tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of the LORD.
Therefore he lifted up his hand against them, to overthrow them in the wilderness:
To overthrow their seed also among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands.
They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.
Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them.
Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the plague was stayed.
And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore.
They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes:
Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.
They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them:
But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.
And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.
Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils,
And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.
Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.
Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance.
And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them.
Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand.
Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity.
Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry:
And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.
He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives.
Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise.
Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the LORD. William Robertson Nicoll's Sermon Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission. Bible Hub |