Homilist Psalm 120:1-7 In my distress I cried to the LORD, and he heard me.… Whoever is the author of the psalm he represents himself as a good man. He had prayed, and his prayer had been answered, and in the last verse he says that whilst his neighbours were for war he was for peace. But his neighbours were distinguished by two great evils — slandering tongues and querulous tempers. I. SLANDERING TONGUES (ver. 2). Slander is a common and a very pernicious evil. "How frequently," says Sterne, "is the honesty and integrity of a man disposed of by a smile or a shrug! How many good and generous actions have been sunk into oblivion by a distrustful look, or stamped with the imputations of proceeding from bad motives, by a mysterious and seasonable whisper." I. The slanderous tongue was terribly painful to the psalmist. He speaks of it as — (1) Sharp arrows of the mighty. (2) Coals of juniper. 2. The slanderer deserves appropriate punishment. II. QUERULOUS TEMPERS (vers. 5, 6). There are in most neighbourhoods those of irascible, choleric, petulant tempers, always ready for angry wrangling and disputation. Like a tinder box they only require a spark to produce an explosion. Shenstone says, "I consider you very testy and quarrelsome people in the same light as I do a loaded gun, which may, by accident, go off and kill one." What are you to do with people of this irascible make? Do not contend with them, do not return their spiteful and malignant utterances. As well endeavour to quench the lightning with a spoonful of water. As God made such tempers they have their use. Out of them come the severe critic, the inflexible censor, the savage warrior, the denunciatory preacher. On the contrary, show them kindness. Though much may depend upon their physical organization, the querulous spirit may be exorcized from them, may be utterly overcome. Such reformations have been effected, and Christ's Gospel of kindness, mighty for that purpose, will one day turn all such natures into love. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: {A Song of degrees.} In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me. |
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