Homilist Psalm 28:1-7 To you will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if you be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.… I. The OBJECT of prayer is here given in metaphor. 1. His nature. "Rock." What so immutable, abiding? (1) Deep in the nature of every man is the desire for some object on which to settle its confidence and its love. (2) The human spirit, without a fixed centre, is like the sea — never at rest. (3) All outside the soul is unsettled and shifting as the clouds. "Riches take to themselves wings and flee away;" friends drop into the grave. The soul wants a Rock amidst this surging sea. 2. His attitude. "Silent." Even Christ on the cross exclaimed, "My God," etc. Does not this prove man's intuitive belief in the fact that fellowship with the Great Father is happiness? Whatever may be man's theoretical credenda concerning the Eternal, his primitive faith is, that happiness is attained only by close communion with Him. 3. His salvation. "Lest I be like them who go down into the pit." From what a pit does the great God deliver His people — (1) The pit of uncorrectable depravity. (2) The pit of unpardonable guilt. (3) The pit of unrelievable despair. II. The NATURE of the prayer is here given in metaphor. 1. Prayer has respect to a special manifestation of God. "Toward Thy holy oracle." What the "Mercy Seat" was to the Jew, Christ is to humanity in these last times — the Temple in which God is to be met, and where the Shekinah radiates — Emmanuel — God with us. Man in prayer requires that his Deity should appear as a local personality. 2. Prayer is the elevation of the soul to God. "I lift up my hands." The lifting up of the hands symbolizes the lifting up of the heart. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: {A Psalm of David.} Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. |
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