Psalm 89:36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. The sun has always been an object so full of mystery and amazing quality that in a large part of history it was worshipped as a deity, and it is destined in all the remainder of history to be the greatest emblem of God. It leaves behind it the seven wonders of the old earth and any seven wonders of the new, and makes of itself alone the one matchless object of all physical things and forms. It deals only in the great. Vast in all particulars, it easily became the early god of mankind, and very slowly and with difficulty became disengaged from the Hebrew and classic religions. At last the Christianized multitude has reached the ability to distinguish between the universe and the Maker of the universe; and, stupendous as the bounds of space may be, and sublime as their occupants may be, the modern mind says they are not God. Our sun could not be God, for there are millions of such suns. But, though as a deity our sun is dethroned, it is wonderful in its dethronement. In the spring months, when winter is being daily conquered by the arrows of heat, the mind will not easily escape the feeling that the sun is a vast expression of Divine love. Our sun has called into being a group of worlds. To him must earth, and Mars, and Jupiter, and Saturn, and their companions, give the credit of their very being as well as of their rich decoration, for the central orb is master of the whole scene. He holds all the planets in an orbit, and thus makes years and seasons possible; and thus detaining them as a mother leads her children by the hand, he makes their surfaces into gardens, and compels each globe to be a marvel of beauty. God as a pure spirit being invisible, we are constrained to feel that the universe is only God passing outward from thought into material, and that all these millions of suns with their planets around them are so many incarnations of the Love Infinite. As man came as an image of God, and as Christ came as an image, still closer, of the Father, so the countless suns are shining forth all glorious images of Him whose soul alone is invisible. Should the sun decline in warmth, all the life on our globe would cease. Should the sun increase his warmth all life of animal and plant would be burned up. What love is that which regulates this gigantic fire and makes it flame for ever as the fireside of our Father's house? If there is such a tremendous scheme for lighting and warming worlds through uncounted ages, may there not be also vast designs of human existence and progress equal, indeed, to all those outlined in religion? If all these physical wonders are for the final happiness of souls, if planets are thus made into the blessed homes of mind, what is to be the destiny of that mind for which such sublime preparations have been made? (D. Swing.) Parallel Verses KJV: His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.WEB: His seed will endure forever, his throne like the sun before me. |
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