The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 1: Psalms I.-XXXVIII.Maclaren, Alexander
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 1: Psalms I.-XXXVIII.
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Psalms -- Commentaries
Just as the vow of ver. 1 passed into invocation, so does the personal
experience of vv. 4-7 glide into exhortation. If such be the experience
of poor men, trusting in Jehovah, how should the sharers in it be able
to withhold themselves from calling on others to take their part in the
joy? The depth of a man's religion may be roughly, but on the whole
fairly, tested by his irrepressible impulse to bring other men to the
fountain from which he has drunk. Very significantly does the psalm call
on men to "taste and see," for in religion experience must precede
knowledge. The way to "taste" is to "trust" or to "take refuge in"
Jehovah. "Crede et manducasti," says Augustine. The psalm said it before
him. Just as the act of appealing to Jehovah was described in a
threefold way in vv. 4-6, so a threefold designation of devout men
occurs in vv. 8-10. They "trust," are "saints," they "seek." Faith,
consecration and aspiration are their marks. These are the essentials of
the religious life, whatever be the degree of revelation. These were its
essentials in the psalmist's time, and they are so to-day. As abiding as
they, are the blessings consequent. These may all be summed up in
one--the satisfaction of every need and desire. There are two ways of
seeking for satisfaction: that of effort, violence and reliance on one's
own teeth and claws to get one's meat; the other that of patient,
submissive trust. Were there lions prowling round the camp at Adullam,
and did the psalmist take their growls as typical of all vain attempts
to satisfy the soul? Struggle and force and self-reliant efforts leave
men gaunt and hungry. He who takes the path of trust and has his supreme
desires set on God, and who looks to Him to give what he himself cannot
wring out of life, will get first his deepest desires answered in
possessing God, and will then find that the One great Good is an
encyclopædia of separate goods. They that "seek Jehovah" shall assuredly
find Him, and in Him everything. He is multiform, and His goodness takes
many shapes, according to the curves of the vessels which it fills.
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God ... and all these things shall be
added unto you."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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