Psalm 24:1-2 The earth is the LORD's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.… The best of God's gifts are often those which are least valued. It is the same with truths as it is with things. Whenever a truth becomes very common, whenever, that is to say, it is put by Divine Providence into the minds of all, we begin to neglect it, and to forget that God should be praised for it. To one of these old and familiar, yet preeminently useful, truths attention is now directed. From the earliest dawn of our reason we were taught that God made us, that a Wise and Holy Being who loves us was our Creator and the Author of all that exists, and what we were taught we believed, and still believe. But while we may both know and believe this truth, nothing is more likely than that, owing to its very commonness and our familiarity with it, we may realise most inadequately the worth of it, and feel very little of that gratitude to God for the revelation of it which we ought to feel. It is not yet a truth known to all the peoples of the earth. It is not a truth which any man, if left to himself, would be sure or even likely to find out. Great men, giants in the intellectual world, have failed to attain to a clear knowledge of God as the alone Creator and Lord of nature. He who believes in God as the Creator and Ruler of the universe can be neither atheist, materialist, or pantheist. The faith in God as the Creator is the necessary basis of all higher spiritual faith. 1. The world being recognised as the work and manifestation of God is thereby invested with a deep religious awe, a solemn religious significance. 2. It is a source of pure and holy joy from which we may draw whenever we look upon anything in nature that is fair and well-fitted to fulfil the end of its creation. 3. By thus sending men to nature as well as Scripture for their religion our text tends to give breadth and freedom to the religious character. 4. Only through realising our relation to nature can we realise our relation to God Himself. We owe all to God, and nothing is our own. (Robert Flint, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: {A Psalm of David.} The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.WEB: The earth is Yahweh's, with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell therein. |
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