The palm of the hand is the seat of strength, the instrument of work;
and so, if Zion's name is written there, that means not only
remembrance, but remembrance which is at the helm, as it were, which is
moulding and directing all the work that is done by the hand that bears
the name inscribed upon it. The thought is identical with the one which
is suggested by part of the High Priest's official dress, although
there the thought has a different application. He bore the names of the
twelve tribes graven upon his shoulder, the seat of power, and upon his
breastplate that lay above the heart, the home of love. God holds out
the mighty Hand which works all things, and says to His children:
'Look, you are graven there'--at the very fountain-head, as it were, of
the divine activity. Which, being turned into plain English, is just
this, that for His Church as a whole, He does move amidst the affairs
of nations. You remember the grand words of one of the Psalms,--'He
reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not Mine anointed, and do
My prophets no harm.' It is no fanatical reading of the history of
earthly politics and kingdoms, if we recognise that one of the most
prominent reasons for the divine activities in moulding the kingdoms,
setting up and casting down, is the advancement of the kingdom of
heaven and the building of the City of God. 'I have graven thee on the
palms of My hands'--and when the hands go to work, it is for the Zion
whose likeness they bear.
But the same truth applies to us individually. 'All things work
together'; they would not do so, unless there was one dominant Will
which turned the chaos into a cosmos. 'All things work,' that is very
plain. The tremendous activities round us both in Nature and in history
are clear to us all. But if all things and events are co-operant,
working into each other, and for one end, like the wheels of a
well-constructed engine, then there must be an Engineer, and they work
together because He is directing them. Thus, because my name is graven
on the palms of the mighty Hand that doeth all things, therefore 'all
things work together for my good.' If we could but carry that quiet
conviction into all the mysteries, as they sometimes seem to be, of our
daily lives, and interpret everything in the light of that great
thought, how different all our days would be! How far above the petty
anxieties and cares and troubles that gnaw away so much of our strength
and joy; how serene, peaceful, lofty, submissive, would be our lives,
and how in the darkest darkness there would be a great light, not only
of hope for a distant future, but of confident assurance for the
present. 'I have graven thee on the palms of My hands '--do Thou, then,
as Thou wilt with me.
III. A last thought here is that the divine remembrance works all
things, to realise a great ideal end, as yet unreached.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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