Psalm 140:6 I said to the LORD, You are my God: hear the voice of my supplications, O LORD. I said unto the Lord, Thou art my God (comp. Psalm 16:2, "I have said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord; I have no good beyond thee; "Psalm 27:1, "The Lord is my light and my salvation;" and many other places). Indeed, a characteristic feature of the Psalms is this personal appropriation of God. It is an essential feature of spiritual religion. There must be this sense of kinness with God, and actual relationship to him. So St. Thomas exclaims, "My Lord and my God!" And our Divine Lord, as model and representative Humanity, said, even in a time of overwhelming darkness and distress, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" From this psalm we learn how such personal appropriation of God really comes to us. I. IT COMES FROM GOD SEEN IN OUR PAST. "Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle." Some one thing was in the psalmist's thought, but it would be sure to lead on a great panorama of Divine defenses and interventions. The one thing was like the first star seen in the evening sky. It is "the glorious token of millions more." God has always been on our side. He is our God. II. IT COMES FROM GOD REALIZED IN PRESENT RELATIONS. We express this when we call him the living God. It should always be clearly seen that "living" involves present activity. Silent and inactive Buddha does not live, does not sustain personal relations, is only an object of contemplation. God lives; is active; is in relations; as these relations are seen to be directly present and personal ones, we call him our God. Our God is here now; he is for us now; he is ours now. III. IT COMES FROM GOD FELT AS THE LOVED AND LOVING ONE. We can appropriate a thing in a cold mood of acquisition. We can only appropriate a person by the act of affection. And herein is a remarkable thing. We cannot appropriate a person unless he is willing to be appropriated. He must love us, or our love to him only keeps us at a distance from each other. We may appropriate God in our love because he appropriates us in his love. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: I said unto the LORD, Thou art my God: hear the voice of my supplications, O LORD.WEB: I said to Yahweh, "You are my God." Listen to the cry of my petitions, Yahweh. |
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