Expositions of Holy Scripture: PsalmsMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Psalms
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Psalms -- Commentaries
By the very make of our own spirits He calls us to Himself. Our
restlessness, our yearnings, our movings about as aliens in the midst of
things seen and visible, all these bid us turn to Him in whom alone our
capacities can be satisfied, and the hunger of our souls appeased. You
remember the old story of the Saracen woman who came to England seeking
her lover, and passed through these foreign cities, with no word upon
her tongue that could be understood of those that heard her except his
name whom she sought. Ah! that is how men wander through the earth,
strangers in the midst of it. They cannot translate the cry of their own
hearts, but it means, 'God--my soul thirsteth for Thee'; and the thirst
bids us seek His face.
He summons us by all the providences and events of our changeful lives.
Our sorrows by their poignancy, our joys by their incompleteness and
their transiency, alike call us to Him in whom alone the sorrows can be
soothed and the joys made full and remain. Our duties, by their
heaviness, call us to turn ourselves to Him, in whom alone we can find
the strength to fill the _role_ that is laid upon us, and to discharge
our daily tasks.
But, most of all, He summons us to Himself by Him who is the Angel of
His Face, 'the effulgence of His glory, and the express image of His
person.' In the face of Jesus Christ, 'the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God' beams out upon us, as it never shone on this Psalmist of
old. He saw but a portion of that countenance, through a thick veil
which thinned as faith gazed, but was never wholly withdrawn. The voice
that he heard calling him was less penetrating and less laden with love
than the voice that calls us. He caught some tones of invitation
sounding in providences and prophecies, in ceremonies and in law; we
hear them more full and clear from the lips of a Brother. They sound to
us from the cradle and the cross, and they are wafted down to us from
the throne. God's merciful invitation to us poor men never has taken,
nor will, nor can, take a sweeter and more attractive form than in
Christ's version of it: 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest.' Friend! that summons comes to us; may
we deal with it as the Psalmist did!
II. That brings me to note, secondly, the devout soul's response to the
loving call from God.
I have already pointed out how beautifully and vividly the contrast
between the two is expressed in our text: 'Seek ye My face'--'Thy face
will I seek.' The Psalmist takes the general invitation and converts it
into an individual one, to which he responds. God's 'ye' is met by his
'I.' The Psalmist makes no hesitation or delay--'_When_ Thou saidst ...
my heart said to Thee.' The Psalmist gathers himself together in a
concentrated resolve of a fixed determination--'Thy face _will_ I seek.'
That is how we ought to respond.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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