Expositions of Holy Scripture: PsalmsMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Psalms
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Psalms -- Commentaries
But let me remind you, further, that this committing of our souls into
God's hands does not mean that we are absolved from taking care of them
ourselves. There is a very false kind of religious faith, which seems to
think that it shuffles off all responsibility upon God. Not at all; you
lighten the responsibility, but you do not get rid of it. And no man has
a right to say 'He will keep me, and so I may neglect diligent custody
of myself.' He keeps us very largely by helping us to keep our hearts
with all diligence, and to keep our feet in the way of truth.
So let me now just say a word in regard to the blessedness of thus
living in an atmosphere of continual dependence on, and reference to,
God, about great things and little things. Whenever a man is living by
trust, even when the trust is mistaken, or when it is resting upon some
mere human, fallible creature like himself, the measure of his
confidence is the measure of his tranquillity. You know that when a
child says, 'I do not need to mind, father will look after that,' he may
be right or wrong in his estimate of his father's ability and
inclination; but as long as he says it, he has no kind of trouble or
anxiety, and the little face is scarred by no deep lines of care or
thought. So when we turn to Him and say, 'Why should I the burden bear?'
then there comes--I was going to say 'surging,' but 'trickling' is a
better word--into my heart a settled peacefulness which nothing else can
give. Look at this psalm. It begins, and for the first half continues,
in a very minor key. The singer was not a poet posing as in affliction,
but his words were wrung out of him by anguish. 'Mine eyes are consumed
with grief; my life is spent with grief'; 'I am ... as a dead man out of
mind'; 'I am in trouble.' And then with a quick wheel about, 'But I
trusted in Thee, O Lord! I said, Thou art my God.' And what comes of
that? This--'O how great is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up for
them that fear Thee!' 'Blessed be the Lord, for He hath showed me His
marvellous kindness in a strong city.' And then, at the end of all, his
peacefulness is so triumphant that he calls upon 'all His saints' to
help him to praise. And the last words are 'Be of good courage, and He
shall strengthen your heart.' That is what you will get if you commit
your soul to God. There was no change in the Psalmist's circumstances.
The same enemy was round about him. The same 'net was privily laid for
him.' All that had seemed to him half an hour before as wellnigh
desperate, continued utterly unaltered. But what _had_ altered? God had
come into the place, and that altered the whole aspect of matters.
Instead of looking with shrinking and tremulous heart along the level of
earth, where miseries were, he was looking up into the heavens, where
God was; and so everything was beautiful. That will be our experience if
we will commit the keeping of our souls to Him in well doing. You can
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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