Psalm 17:15 As for me, I will behold your face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with your likeness. (with Psalm 73:20): — Both these Psalms are occupied with that standing puzzle to Old Testament worthies — the good fortune of bad men, and the bad fortune of good ones. The former tells of the calamities of David; the latter, of the perplexity of Asaph "when he saw the prosperity of the wicked." And as the problem is the same, so is the solution. David and Asaph both point on to a period when such perplexities shall not be. David thinks of it in regard to himself; Asaph, in regard to the wicked. And both describe that future period as an awakening: David as his own; Asaph, as that of God. What they meant is not absolutely clear. Some would bring the words well within the limits of the present life; others see in them what tells of the future life that stretches beyond the grave. But inasmuch as David contrasts his awaking with the death of "the men of this world," it would seem that he points on, however dimly, to that which is "within the veil." And as for Asaph, the awaking he tells of may refer to some act of judgment in this life. But the strong words in which the context describes this awaking as the "destruction" and "the end" of the godless tell rather of life's final close. The doctrine of the future life was never clear to Israel as to us. Hence there are great tracts of the Old Testament where it never appears at all. This very difficulty about "the prosperity of the wicked" would not have arisen had they known what we do. But in these Psalms We see men being taught of God the clearer hope which alone could sustain them. Regarding, then, the end of life as told of in both these Psalms, we note — I. THAT TO ALL MEN THE END OF LIFE IS AN AWAKENING. We call death, sleep, but we use the word as a euphemism to veil the form and deformity of the ugly thing, death. But this name we give to death tells of our weariness of life, and how blessed we think it will be to be still at last with folded hands and shut eyes. But the emblem is but half the truth. For, "what dreams may come!" And we shall wake too. The spirit shall spring into greater intensity of action. To our true selves and to God we shall awake. Here we are like men asleep in some chamber that looks towards the eastern sky. Morning by morning comes sunrise, with the tender glory of its rosy light and blushing heavens, and the heavy eyes are closed to it all. Here and there some light sleeper, with thinner eyelids or face turned to the sun, is half-conscious of a vague brightness, and feels the light, though he sees not the colour of the sky nor the forms of the filmy clouds. Such souls are our saints and prophets, but most of us sleep on unconscious. But to us all the moment of awaking will come. What shall it be to us? II. DEATH IS TO SOME MEN THE AWAKING OF GOD. "When Thou awakest, Thou shalt despise their image." The metaphor is a common one. God awakes when He arises to judge a nation. But the word here points on to the future. The present life is the time of God's forbearance, the field for the manifestation of patient love, not willing that any should perish. Here and now His judgment, for the most part, slumbers. But He will awake. "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night," and the wicked will have to confront "the terror of the Lord." For sixty times sixty slow, throbbing seconds, the silent hand creeps unnoticed round the dial, and then, with whirr and clang, the bell rings out, and another hour of the world's secular day is gone. All present judgments — epochs of convulsion and ruin — are but precursors of the day when God awakes. III. DEATH IS THE ANNIHILATION OF THE VAIN SHOW OF WORLDLY LIFE. Things here are non-substantial — shadows — and non-permanent. IV. DEATH IS TO SOME MEN SUCH ANNIHILATION IN ORDER TO REVEAL THE GREAT REALITY. "Thy likeness." "Form," the word really means. Hence the "likeness" means, not conformity to the Divine character, but the beholding of His self-manifestation. Seeing God we shall be satisfied. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. |
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