Man's forgetfulness of God' and God's remembrance of man.
I. MAN'S FORGETFULNESS OF GOD. "None saith, Where is God my Maker?"
1. The cause of it.
(a) a sense of guilt, which instinctively urges man to shun God's presence (Genesis 3:8);
(b) the dominion of the world, which over every sinful heart exercises an almost resistless fascination (1 John 2:15); and
(c) an absorption in self, which, by magnifying all its own little interests and concerns, its sorrows no less than its joys, prevents the human soul from seeking after God.
2. The criminality of it.
II. GOD'S REMEMBRANCE OF MAN. He "giveth songs in the night."
1. In the night of natural day. By spreading out the star-illumined canopy above man's head, he stirs, at least in thoughtful minds, such exalted ideas and holy emotions as frequently break out in anthems of praise: witness David (Psalms 8:3, Psalms 8:4), Job (Job 9:4-10), Isaiah (Isaiah 40:26), and the unknown Hebrew singer (Psalms 147:4).
2. In the night of devout meditation. "Let the saints sing aloud upon their beds" (Psalms 149:5); and oftentimes when wrapt in heavenly contemplation, remembering God upon their beds, and meditating on him in the night-watches, the mouths of saints praise him with joyful lips (Psalms 63:5, Psalms 63:6).
3. In the night of spiritual conviction. In such a night David sang some of his sweetest songs (Psalms 51:1-19.). And as God put a new song into David's mouth when he was lifted out of the horrible pit and miry clay (Psalms 40:3), so does he put a happy anthem of praise for forgiving mercy into the lips of every believing penitent: witness the jailor of Philippi (Acts 16:34).
4. In the night of temporal affliction Israel, escaping from the land of Egypt in a night which at one period seemed dark enough (Exodus 14:10), sang a song of deliverance before the morning dawn had fully risen (Exodus 15:1). A dark dismal night of adversity it was for David when he was driven forth from his palace, from his capital, from his people, from the temple (2 Samuel 15:30); and yet then it was that David sang, "But thou, O Lord, art a Shield for me, and the Lifter-up of mine head "(Psalms 3:3). Paul and Silas had their songs in the prison of Philippi (Acts 16:25); and there is not a saint, however feeble, that may not chant in the darkest night of trouble a psalm of holy confidence in God.
5. In the night of approaching dissolution. Job himself at times was not without his song, though he felt that he was standing on the verge of the tomb (Job 19:25-27). So did God give an anthem to Hezekiah, when he raised that weeping and praying monarch from what seemed a couch of death (Isaiah 38:20). David, too, had a song ready for that dark sad night which he knew to be inevitable (Psalms 23:4). It was a noble hymn which St. Paul sent forth from the Roman prison to his young son Timothy (2 Timothy 4:6). And so does God give to all saints, who seek after him in humility, penitence, and faith, a song to cheer them in the dying hour (1 Corinthians 15:55); and when the dark night of death breaks away, puts into their mouths the never-ending song of Moses and the Lamb.
Learn:
1. The advantage of seeking after God.
2. The kindness of God in thinking upon man.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON