How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God, how vast is their sum! Sermons
The latter clause of ver. 15 has been well rendered, "When I was wrought with a needle in the depths of the earth." There is an evidence of allusion to the sacerdotal robes, and the undescribable texture of the human system is compared to the exquisite needlework of the high priest's garments. Every man is a bundle of possibilities; but no man has precisely the same possibilities as any other man. Each man can be what nobody else can be; each man can do what nobody else can do. This does not mean that any man can transcend the sphere and limitations of man, only that there is a very wide variety within the limitations. There are, indeed, general powers and faculties, and general elements of character and disposition, so that men can be classified; but within the classes there is what may be called an infinite individuality - remarkable varieties of ability, and even more remarkable combinations of ability and disposition and sphere. Nothing oppresses so much as to think what we should do if it were laid on us to find their right places for every man and every woman. I. GOD KNOWS EVERY MAN'S INDIVIDUALITY. Science may trace that individuality to heredity, to the bodily and mental condition of parents, to food and atmospheres, or anything else; it remains the fact that the estimate of the individuality is possible only with God. Man must have the actual story of another man's life and experience ere he can discern his individuality. God alone can know it anticipatively from the beginning. A man's individuality is not shown in any one thing; it is the stamp on the life, and the life must be lived before it can be seen. God knows the end from the beginning, because he knows what man essentially is. Of Christ it is said, "He knew what was in man." II. GOD CAN PRESIDE OVER THE ADJUSTMENT OF MAN'S PLACE AND WORK TO HIS INDIVIDUALITY. Oftentimes the surprise of life is the place in which God puts men, and the work he gives them to do. Men always err when they force themselves to do what they think they would like to do. We are only on safe lines when we do what God gives us to do. He knows us; he knows all places, all work, all circumstances; so he can fit things and people together, and make both work together for good. "My times are in thy hands." - R.T. How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God. : — The sense of God's nearness brings thoughts of God. The devout soul cherishes these thoughts, and they become to it a joy unspeakable. One thing arrests attention. It is the sense of God as a "fellow-person" which this good man had. I. HOW PRECIOUS TO ME ARE MY THOUGHTS OF THEE. The Jew associated the thought of God with everything. To him the grand things of nature were full of God. The mountains were the "hills of God"; the winds were the "breathings of God; the thunder was the "voice of God." The saints of God, in all the ages, have found one Being who is in everything, who is the life of everything, but they have found that they could enter into personal relations with Him. 1. Our thoughts of God are started by the history of His dealings with our fathers through the long ages. 2. By our studies of His handiwork. 3. Our best thoughts are started by our own personal experiences of His gracious dealings. For our lives have been so full of God. That seems to us now to be the supreme charm of them. 4. Our thoughts take on some new forms since we have had the helps and suggestions of our saving relations with the Lord Jesus. II. HOW PRECIOUS TO ME ARE THY THOUGHTS OF ME. It is a joy unspeakable to be assured that God is thinking about us, and is even enjoying His thoughts about us. Nothing can be more delightful than to feel that by our loving obediences, our sweet spirit of submission, and our devoted services to others, we are starting happy thoughts in the mind of God. We forget that as He "takes pleasure in His people," we must be giving Him pleasure. There can be little comparison between God's thoughts of us and our thoughts of God. We can get to know something of the thoughts of God, and fill our souls with the richest consolations, as we read His mind and heart. The smile on His face shines through the veil of nature, and we can tell what He is thinking that makes Him smile. His whisperings are heard in the sighing of the evening breeze, and the tender tones tell us what love-thoughts are cherished in His heart. Have we made enough of the signs which help us to read the thoughts of God? His thoughts take shape as "exceeding great and precious promises." When we are cherishing loving thoughts concerning some earthly friend, we find that we cannot satisfy ourselves without devising and bestowing some gift. And it is just the same with God. He could not satisfy Himself with merely cherishing loving thoughts about us. He must do something for us. He must give something to us. He must give Himself to us in some gift. And what shall it bey It shall be His most cherished possession, His dearest and best, His only-begotten and well-beloved Son. That is indeed an unspeakably precious gift. Cannot we read the thoughts of God by the help of that gift? How the Father-heart of God must have yearned over His lost children! "How precious are Thy thoughts." We are wrapped about with God's loving thoughts, and they keep us warmed and cheered. () : —I. THOUGHTS OF MERCY. 1. That mercy is free — free as yon arch of heaven above our heads; free as the sunlight that shines upon all and everywhere. 2. That mercy is full. It never asks how many or how black are our sins. 3. That mercy is exhaustless. If I may say so, it has no superlative. Whatever in all the past ages of the Church He has done for any soul He can exceed that. 4. That mercy is ready. 5. That mercy gets glory to itself out of the very sins which it forgives. II. THOUGHTS OF LOVE. He knows our frame. He remembers that we are but dust. He tempers the trial, and brings good out of it. And He is always doing this all our lives through. III. THOUGHTS OF GLORY. To fit us to mingle in the society of heaven is God's purpose — a purpose which He keeps steadily in view in all His providential dealings with us. () I. THEY ARE PRECIOUS. "How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God;" costly, highly valuable. Who shall measure the value of God's thoughts to man? What currency could express their preciousness? For His thoughts are not vagrant like ours, going a-wool-gathering hither and yon, without direction or purpose. Every one becomes a creation, a star, a living creature, a cataract, a gleaming cliff, a beautiful human soul. II. THE SUM OF THEM IS GREAT. Great in their totality. The summary of them is beyond us. If we consider them in their generic outline they are great. We may fathom one little fact in God's world, a single thought, bug how can the human mind take in the whole outline? Who knows the mind of God? What can we do with our finite minds to compass divinity? How vain and weak is man face to face with the Author of all life. How humble and reverent it should make us when we consider the works of His hands and our own feeble undertakings. "How great is the sum of them." III. THEY ARE INCOMPREHENSIBLE. David felt as Milton after him, that he was only picking up shells on the shore of that vast ocean he must sail so soon. How wonderful is life, in its minute forms. What delicate beauty. What exquisite harmony. What undeviating law runs through all life. () : —I. LOVING. He thought of us when we were plunged in hopeless ruin, and His great heart of pity went out, after us. But with what complacent love He thinks of those who heed His calls and are loyal to His leadership! II. CONSTANT. He never forgets. Husbands and wives think of each other often and tenderly when separated. So the fond mother and her darling child. But their thoughts are interrupted by necessary attention to other matters. By the very limitations of their own nature they cannot hold their minds incessantly upon one person, however dear. Not so with God. Great events do not divert Him. He may have worlds to create and govern, but He is not so absorbed in them as to forget us. No exigency can arise for which He is not fully prepared. Nothing can fake Him by surprise. III. PERSONAL. God does not think of us in a crowd, as forming indefinite parts of a great mass-meeting. He singles us out and thinks of us individually — as if there were no other person in the universe. We are compelled to divide our thoughts and loving attentions between the different ones that come into the charmed circle of our friendship. But God thinks of me as really, as definitely, as personally as He does of the seraph nearest the throne. IV. HELPFUL. We may think of a person, but have no disposition to help him. But God has a disposition to help and the ability to help, and He lives and thinks of us on purpose to help. The outgoings of His loving heart are benedictions upon our heads and benefactions upon our daily pathway. () : —I. GOD'S THOUGHTS OF US. 1. That the infinite Jehovah thinks of us is absolutely certain. I know that the notion of some men is that the world is like a watch, and that God has done with it as we do with our watches — that, is, wound it up, put, it under His pillow, and gone to sleep. But it is not so; for in this great world-watch — to keep up the figure — God is present with every wheel and every cog of every wheel; there is no action in it apart from His present putting forth of power to make it move. Now, as God thinks and must think of the whole material universe which He has created, much more does He think of men, and most of all of us who are His chosen people. God must think of us; the blood would not flow in our veins, nor would the breath make our lungs to heave, nor would our various bodily processes go on without the perpetual exercise of His power. God must think of us especially in all the higher departments of our being, for they would speedily come to nothing apart from His constant care. 2. God's thoughts of us must be very numerous. One or two thoughts would not suffice for our many needs; if He only thought of us now and then, what should we do in the meantime? But He thinks of us constantly. 3. His thoughts of us are very tender. He looks upon His people as a father upon a child. How often He has screened us from trouble! How frequently He has prepared us for a trial, so that, when it came, it did not crush us! How often He has rescued us out of sore perils! How often He has visited us in the night, and given us songs amid our sorrow! 4. Very wise. 5. Very practical. His thoughts are really His acts, for with Him to will is to do. II. OUR THOUGHTS UPON GOD'S THOUGHTS. 1. There is no other thought that can for a moment be compared with it. 2. How delightful it is to he thought upon by God. 3. How consoling. 4. The thoughts of God often move the souls of Christians, strengthening them in faith, arousing them to love, bestirring them to zeal. III. OUR THOUGHTS UPON GOD HIMSELF. 1. They bring us near to God. 2. They help to keep us near to God. 3. They help to restore to us God's presence if for a while we have lest it. "When I awake" — that means, "I have been asleep, and so have lost the consciousness of God's presence." Have you never known what it is, at night, to be quite sorry to go to sleep because you have been so full of holy joy that you were afraid you might lose it while you were unconscious? "When I awake, I am still with Thee." I think it means also, "When I wake up from any temporary lethargy into which I may have fallen, I am still with Thee." We all get into that state sometimes; sleeping, though our heart is awake. We wish to be more brisk, more lively; but we cannot stir ourselves up. We have fallen into a kind of stupor. What a blessing it is to be roused out of it, possibly by a severe affliction, perhaps by an earnest discourse! Then the awakened one says, "Now I have come back to Thee, my God. There was a something within me that could not forget Thee, even for a while, though it lay still and dormant." () Homilist. : —I. They must be DISCOVERED. 1. There must be a revelation of them. (1)in the material world.(2)Events of history.(3)Bible.2. There must be a capacity to interpret the revelation. That is the distinction of man. 3. The capacity must be rightly employed. We must study the revelation. What is the scientist in quest of with his lenses, retorts, laboratories? The thoughts of God in nature. What is the Biblical critic in search of in investigating the meaning of Scripture? The thoughts of God in the Bible. II. They must be COMPARED. We get the impression that one fabric is more precious than another, one stone more precious than another, one life more precious than another by comparison. Thus we are to get the impression of God's thoughts by comparing them with ours. They are — 1. Absolutely original. All human thoughts are derived. 2. Comprehensive — taking in the whole of a thing, and the whole of everything. 3. Unsuccessive. 4. Infinitely useful. 5. Everlasting. 6. Essentially holy. Thus His thoughts are not as our thoughts. III. They must be APPROPRIATED. As light is precious only to the man who sees, food only to the man who participates, beauty only to the man who admires, so God's thoughts are only precious to the man who appropriate them. () : — God has thoughts, and they are infinite in number, in compass, and in importance. Some of His thoughts are expressed, many more remain unexpressed. There are at least three modes of expressing thought. One is by acting them. Creation, with its complicated laws and systems, is nettling more than God's thought expressed in act. Another mode of expressing thought is by speech. God has gifted man above the brute creation with the power of speech. God has conveyed some of His thoughts to men through the medium of speech. Moses heard His voice on Sinai; He spoke to Abraham, to Jacob, to Samuel, and others, and to these, His servants, the Divine voice was a vehicle to convey Divine thought. Under the dispensation of the Incarnation, God made extensive use of speech, in the Person of our Blessed Lord, to convey His thoughts to the children of men. Another mode of expressing thought is by writing. Men convey thoughts through the medium of books. In the Bible you have a volume of God's thoughts in writing.I. Thoughts, in order to be precious, must be GOOD. — morally good — good in themselves, and good in their influence on those who embrace them, pure and purifying. Millions on earth, and millions more in heaven, can bear testimony that God's thoughts have elevated the mind, given to the heart quickening impulses towards virtue, and kindled aspirations after God and purity. II. Thoughts to be precious must be TRUE — great intellects sometimes waste their energies on the untrue and unreal. They live in an ideal world, a creation of their own fancy, and by their writings allure many into the same world of dreams and allegory. You must give the intellect reality, substance, truth, in order to satisfy its deeper cravings. In the Bible we have a volume of God's thoughts, and they are all true. Some portions have been written in poetry, but it is not the poetry of fiction or fancy, but the poetry of truth, eternal truth. III. Thoughts are sometimes precious because of their ORIGINALITY. It is truly refreshing to come in contact with a great mind, who conducts you into loftier mental altitudes than usual, opens out landscapes of thought where the mind may revel with a transport of joy over thoughts which are fresh, noble, and pure. In the Bible we have a volume of God's thoughts, many of them original, belonging exclusively to God. They were hidden in the bosom of God before the beginning of creation, and God only could make them known to the intelligent universe. IV. Thoughts, in order to be precious, must be BENEVOLENTLY RELATED TO ME. The Bible assures me that God's thoughts are benevolent and merciful. The Gospel is the out-breathing of the great Father's love towards His rebel children, the yearnings of His heart over His prodigal family, the advertisement of His anxiety to see His alienated creatures return, and of His willingness to forgive and forget their infinite wrong. V. Thoughts, in order to be precious, must be PRACTICABLE. The scheme which the Gospel reveals is not hypothetical; it is not the offer of a boon on conditions which are impossible. It is gloriously possible. It is the proclamation of an all-sufficient remedy, that redemption is effected, that it is free for all, that every difficulty has been removed, every claim met, and that now nothing is wanting on the part of man but an open heart to receive and welcome the gift Divine. This is God's thought, and it is precious. () : — Some of God's thoughts are expressed, but many more remain unexpressed. His unexpressed thoughts, we believe, infinitely exceed both in number and grandeur His expressed thoughts. Some think science is making very rapid progress in the discovery of God's thoughts in the realm of matter, but the progress is slow when compared with the infinite multitude of thoughts which yet remain to be disclosed. Think of the sunbeams. They have been irradiating the world from the very beginning of creation. Think, again, of the iodine in the seaweed. It has been there ever since the sea lashed its shores first. The sunbeam is God's thought, the iodine is God's thought; but there is a third thought, springing from the combination under certain conditions of the ray of light and the iodine. You take the iodine from the seaweed, sprinkle its vapour on a piece of glass, hold that glass in the sunlight, stand in front of it, and you have yourself photographed. This third thought of photography has only been recent]y discovered. The thought was present to God when He created the first ray of light and put the first drop of iodine in the seaweed, and yet it has taken man thousands of years to discover that thought, so simple now that we know it. So still there are infinite abysses which we cannot fathom, and infinite heights which we can never reach. We have only reached the alphabet of knowledge as yet. We are in the infancy of our being, mastering with difficulty our elementary primer. Neither the youth nor the manhood of mind will be reached by us in this world. We shall all die mere infants in knowledge. But there is mental manhood in store for us somewhere in the universe of God. We fondly hope and firmly believe that in heaven God will reveal to us His deeper and higher thoughts. We are now groping outside and knocking at the door of the temple of truth. Then we shall be admitted into the interior, and perhaps feel ourselves at first bewildered with its infinite vastness, The universe, with its infinitude of worlds and its unknown immensity, is that temple, and it is full of God's thoughts. Those thoughts are expressed in endless variety in every star and system, in perhaps myriads of systems never yet brought within the range of any telescope. They are written on orders of beings and intelligences of which now we have no conception, and of which the universe may be full. In our vast explorations we shall meet God's thoughts at every step we take, in the very atmosphere which souls breathe, in the canopy which encompasses them, in every spirit that flits by, or that pauses to commune with us, in the fresh and novel scenes which every system will open out to us. When we travel over infinite space, when the universe is laid open to our inspection, when there is no limit placed on our scrutiny of its infinite mysteries except the limit which a finite creature must ever feel when he has to do with the Infinite, fresh revelations of the Godhead will burst upon us, and with greater rapture than now we shall exclaim, "How precious are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!"()
People David, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Dear, O, Precious, Sum, Thoughts, Vast, WeightyOutline 1. David praises God for his all-seeing providence
17. And for this infinite mercies
19. He defies the wicked
23. He prays for sincerity
Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 139:17-18 4360 sand
5191 thought Library August 31. "Lead Me in the Way Everlasting" (Ps. cxxxix. 24).
"Lead me in the way everlasting" (Ps. cxxxix. 24). There is often apparently but little difference in two distinct lives between constant victory and frequent victory. But that one little difference constitutes a world of success or failure. The one is the Divine, the other is the human; the one is the everlasting way, the other the transient and the imperfect. God wants to lead us to the way everlasting, and to establish us and make us immovable as He. We little know the seriousness of the slightest …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth God's Scrutiny Longed For
'Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; 24. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.'--PSALM cxxxix. 23, 24. This psalm begins with perhaps the grandest contemplation of the divine Omniscience that was ever put into words. It is easy to pour out platitudes upon such a subject, but the Psalmist does not content himself with generalities. He gathers all the rays, as it were, into one burning point, and focusses them upon himself: 'Oh, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture September the Eighteenth the All-Round Defence
"Thou hast beset me behind." --PSALM cxxxix. 1-12. And that is a defence against the enemies which would attack me in the rear. There is yesterday's sin, and the guilt which is the companion of yesterday's sin. They pursue my soul like fierce hounds, but my gracious Lord will come between my pursuers and me. His mighty grace intervenes, and my security is complete. "Thou hast beset me ... before." And that is a defence against the enemies which would impede my advance and frighten me out of …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year The Kingdom Divided
THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS: Jonah Page Amos Page Isaiah Page OUTLINE FOR STUDY OF PROPHETICAL BOOKS 1. Class. 2. Commission of Prophet. 3. Biographical Description of Prophet. 4. Title of Prophet. 5. Historical Place. (a) Name of Kingdom. (b) Names of Kings. 6. Outline of Contents. 7. Prophecies of Earthly Kings or Kingdoms. 8. Prophecies of Christ. 9. Prophecies of Christ's Kingdom. 10. Leading Phrases. 11. Leading Chapters. 12. Leading Teachings. 13. Questions. 14. Items of Special Interest. …
Frank Nelson Palmer—A Bird's-Eye View of the Bible The Tests of Love to God
LET us test ourselves impartially whether we are in the number of those that love God. For the deciding of this, as our love will be best seen by the fruits of it, I shall lay down fourteen signs, or fruits, of love to God, and it concerns us to search carefully whether any of these fruits grow in our garden. 1. The first fruit of love is the musing of the mind upon God. He who is in love, his thoughts are ever upon the object. He who loves God is ravished and transported with the contemplation of …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial God Omnipresent and Omniscient --Ps. cxxxix.
God Omnipresent and Omniscient--Ps. cxxxix. Searcher of hearts! to Thee are known The inmost secrets of my breast At home, abroad, in crowds, alone, Thou mark'st my rising and my rest, My thoughts far off, through every maze, Source, stream, and issue,--all my ways. How from Thy presence should I go, Or whither from Thy Spirit flee, Since all above, around, below, Exist in Thine immensity? If up to heaven I take my way, I meet Thee in eternal day. If in the grave I make my bed With worms and dust, …
James Montgomery—Sacred Poems and Hymns Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24
Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24. All hearts to Thee are open here; All our desires are known; And we are that which we appear To Thee, good Lord, alone. No eye of man can penetrate, Another's secret mind, Nor well discern his own estate, Naked, and poor, and blind. The entrance of Thy word gives light: Let it so shine within, That each may tremble at the sight Of his unbosom'd sin. With godly sorrow make him grieve, Till hope spring out of grief, And,cry with tears, "Lord, I believe, Help Thou mine unbelief." …
James Montgomery—Sacred Poems and Hymns Excursus on the Present Teaching of the Latin and Greek Churches on the Subject.
To set forth the present teaching of the Latin Church upon the subject of images and the cultus which is due them, I cite the decree of the Council of Trent and a passage from the Catechism set forth by the authority of the same synod. (Conc. Trid., Sess. xxv. December 3d and 4th, 1563. [Buckley's Trans.]) The holy synod enjoins on all bishops, and others sustaining the office and charge of teaching that, according to the usage of the Catholic and Apostolic Church received from the primitive times …
Philip Schaff—The Seven Ecumenical Councils An Unanswered Question
'What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?'--Mark ix. 33. Was it not a strange time to squabble when they had just been told of His death? Note-- I. The variations of feeling common to the disciples and to us all: one moment 'exceeding sorrowful,' the next fighting for precedence. II. Christ's divine insight into His servants' faults. This question was put because He knew what the wrangle had been about. The disputants did not answer, but He knew without an answer, as His immediately …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Out of the Deep of Doubt, Darkness, and Hell.
O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night unto Thee. Oh! let my prayer enter into Thy presence. For my soul is full of trouble and my life draweth nigh unto Hell. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in a place of darkness, and in the deep.--Ps. lxxxviii. 1, 2. If I go down to Hell, Thou art there also. Yea, the darkness is no darkness with Thee; but the night is as clear as the day.--Ps. cxxxix. 7, 11. I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my calling. …
Charles Kingsley—Out of the Deep The Deity of the Holy Spirit.
In the preceding chapter we have seen clearly that the Holy Spirit is a Person. But what sort of a Person is He? Is He a finite person or an infinite person? Is He God? This question also is plainly answered in the Bible. There are in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments five distinct and decisive lines of proof of the Deity of the Holy Spirit. I. Each of the four distinctively Divine attributes is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. What are the distinctively Divine attributes? Eternity, omnipresence, …
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit The Suffering of Love.
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend."--John xv. 13. Love suffers because the spirit of the world antagonizes the Spirit of God. The former is unholy, the Latter is holy, not in the sense of mere opposition to the world's spirit, but because He is the absolute Author of all holiness, being God Himself. Hence the conflict. There is no point along the whole line of the world's life which does not antagonize the Holy Spirit whenever He touches it. Whenever …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit The Hardening Operation of Love.
"Being grieved for the hardness of their heart."--Mark iii. 5. Love may also be reversed. Failing to cherish, to uplift, and to enrich, it consumes and destroys. This is a mystery which man can not fathom. It belongs to the unsearchable depths of the divine Being, of which we do not wish to know more than has been revealed. But this does not alter the fact. No creature can exclude itself from the divine control. No man can say that he has nothing to do with God; that he or any other creature exists …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit Inconsideration Deplored. Rev. Joshua Priestley.
"And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness."--HOSEA vii. 2. Is it possible for any man to conceive of truths more fitted to arrest the attention and impress the heart than are those contained in this volume? It has been said that if a blank book had been put into our hands, and every one of us had been asked to put into it the promises we should like to find there, we could not have employed language so explicit, so expressive, and so suited to all our varied wants, …
Knowles King—The Wesleyan Methodist Pulpit in Malvern Annunciation to Joseph of the Birth of Jesus.
(at Nazareth, b.c. 5.) ^A Matt. I. 18-25. ^a 18 Now the birth [The birth of Jesus is to handled with reverential awe. We are not to probe into its mysteries with presumptuous curiosity. The birth of common persons is mysterious enough (Eccl. ix. 5; Ps. cxxxix. 13-16), and we do not well, therefore, if we seek to be wise above what is written as to the birth of the Son of God] of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When his mother Mary had been betrothed [The Jews were usually betrothed ten or twelve months …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel The Love of Christ.
THE Patience of Christ was recently the object of our meditation in these pages. Blessed and inexhaustible it is. And now a still greater theme is before our hearts. The Love of Christ. The heart almost shrinks from attempting to write on the matchless, unfathomable love of our blessed and adorable Lord. All the Saints of God who have spoken and written on the Love of Christ have never told out its fulness and vastness, its heights and its depths. "The Love of Christ which passeth knowledge" (Ephesians …
Arno Gaebelein—The Lord of Glory The Kingdom Undivided
THE POETICAL BOOKS: Psalms Page Song of Solomon Page Proverbs Page THE PSALMS I. The Collection and Divisions: In all probability the book of one hundred and fifty psalms, as it now stands, was compiled by Ezra about 450 B.C. They are divided into five books, each closing with a benediction, evidently added to mark the end of the book. Note the number of psalms in Books 1 and 2. II. The Purposes: 1. They were originally used as songs in the Jewish Temple Worship. …
Frank Nelson Palmer—A Bird's-Eye View of the Bible The Knowledge of God
'The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.' I Sam 2:2. Glorious things are spoken of God; he transcends our thoughts, and the praises of angels. God's glory lies chiefly in his attributes, which are the several beams by which the divine nature shines forth. Among other of his orient excellencies, this is not the least, The Lord is a God of knowledge; or as the Hebrew word is, A God of knowledges.' Through the bright mirror of his own essence, he has a full idea and cognisance …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity How the Simple and the Crafty are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 12.) Differently to be admonished are the simple and the insincere. The simple are to be praised for studying never to say what is false, but to be admonished to know how sometimes to be silent about what is true. For, as falsehood has always harmed him that speaks it, so sometimes the hearing of truth has done harm to some. Wherefore the Lord before His disciples, tempering His speech with silence, says, I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now (Joh. xvi. 12). …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great Christ Teaching by Miracles
We have seen how many valuable lessons our Saviour taught while on earth by the parables which he used. But we teach by our lives, as well as by our lips. It has passed into a proverb, and we all admit the truth of it, that "Actions speak louder than words." If our words and our actions contradict each other, people will believe our actions sooner than our words. But when both agree together, then the effect is very great. This was true with our blessed Lord. There was an entire agreement between …
Richard Newton—The Life of Jesus Christ for the Young The Disciple, -- Master, it is Clear to Almost Everyone that to Disobey God And...
The Disciple,--Master, it is clear to almost everyone that to disobey God and to cease to worship Him is sin, and the deadly result is seen in the present state of the world. But what sin really is is not absolutely clear. In the very presence of Almighty God, and in opposition to His will, and in His own world, how did sin come to be? The Master,--1. Sin is to cast aside the will of God and to live according to one's own will, deserting that which is true and lawful in order to satisfy one's own …
Sadhu Sundar Singh—At The Master's Feet Appendix xvii. The Ordinances and Law of the Sabbath as Laid Down in the Mishnah and the Jerusalem Talmud.
The terribly exaggerated views of the Rabbis, and their endless, burdensome rules about the Sabbath may best be learned from a brief analysis of the Mishnah, as further explained and enlarged in the Jerusalem Talmud. [6476] For this purpose a brief analysis of what is, confessedly, one of the most difficult tractates may here be given. The Mishnic tractate Sabbath stands at the head of twelve tractates which together from the second of the six sections into which the Mishnah is divided, and which …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah The Being of God
Q-III: WHAT DO THE SCRIPTURES PRINCIPALLY TEACH? A: The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. Q-IV: WHAT IS GOD? A: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Here is, 1: Something implied. That there is a God. 2: Expressed. That he is a Spirit. 3: What kind of Spirit? I. Implied. That there is a God. The question, What is God? takes for granted that there …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity Out of the Deep of Suffering and Sorrow.
Save me, O God, for the waters are come in even unto my soul: I am come into deep waters; so that the floods run over me.--Ps. lxix. 1, 2. I am brought into so great trouble and misery: that I go mourning all the day long.--Ps. xxxviii. 6. The sorrows of my heart are enlarged: Oh! bring Thou me out of my distress.--Ps. xxv. 17. The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping: the Lord will receive my prayer.--Ps. vi. 8. In the multitude of the sorrows which I had in my heart, Thy comforts have refreshed …
Charles Kingsley—Out of the Deep Links Psalm 139:17 NIV
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