An appeal to experience, and its record.
"They that know thy Name," etc. Truth is given us in Scripture, not as bare doctrine, but clothed in living experience; not as an anatomical preparation for intellect to dissect and anatomize, but as food to nourish; nay, more—as a friend to talk with us. For the best reason—we are not merely to hold it intellectually, but to live by it. Hence the whole Bible, from end to end, is full of human life and history. But, above all, the Book of Psalms is a textbook and encyclopaedia of spiritual experience. The text is an appeal to experience, and a record of its testimony,
I. WHO ARE THEY WHOSE EXPERIENCE IS APPEALED TO? Those who know God's Name. Names are more than bare signs of thought; they are instruments of thought; storehouses and treasuries of knowledge; vessels from which it can be poured; current coin, in which it passes from mind to mind. More than this. They are treasuries of feeling; talismans to call it forth; ripe seeds from which its bloom and fragrance spring to new life. Our power of naming is the measure of our knowledge. Therefore in Scripture, the Name of God stands for all that we can know of him. It includes, not only knowledge of the intellect, but of the heart (comp. John 17:3, John 17:6 with 1 John 4:8). "Canst thou by searching," etc.? (Job 11:7, Job 11:8). Surely not. This is a depth we cannot fathom; a breadth and height we cannot measure. But to say this is no concession to the mental indolence of agnosticism. Do not let us underrate what we can and do know of God.
1. We know him as the Source and Foundation of all being but his own. Therefore eternal and infinite. It is mere idle ring of verbal logic to say that "from a finite universe you cannot prove an infinite Creator." For, though the universe is (we are compelled to think) in some sense finite, yet it is infinite in possibility, and in demand on knowledge, wisdom, power, love.
2. We know him as the Father of our spirits, in whom we live and have our being. As a Personal Being; i.e. one to whom we can speak, and who speaks to us. We can say "Thou" to him, and he says "Thou" to each of us.
3. We know his character. Perfect righteousness, truth, holiness, love; and his will, as revealed in his Word.
4. We know him as "the God and -Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (John 1:18). Who, then, are "they that know God's Name"? Those to whom all these truths are not words, but realities; who study his will, and obey it; study his Word, and believe it; live in fellowship with God by prayer and praise; know the power of his love (1 John 4:16, 1 John 4:19); and see his glory in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:6). In one word, "the Name" of God is matter of revelation; but the knowledge of his Name is matter of experience.
II. WHAT IS THE TESTIMONY OF THEIR EXPERIENCE? This—that God may safely be trusted—is infinitely worthy of unswerving absolute trust. Those who know him best trust him most; and those who have trusted him most bear witness to his faithfulness. We may say that the truth of the whole Bible is involved in the truth of this verse. For what is the Bible from end to end, but an invitation to trust God—with the reasons for so doing? A revelation, not so much to intellect as to heart and conscience. With this it is very largely a record of the personal experience of those who have trusted (and also of those who have distrusted) God (Psalms 34:6). And, withal, it is a challenge to future experience. It invites practical personal test. "Taste and see" (Psalms 34:8). If the answer were that, practically, faith in God is found to be a failure, then the Bible would have missed its mark. Then Christianity must be confessed a beautiful illusion. But the facts are the other way. Go to the Christian—learned or simple, poor or prosperous—who, through a busy life, has made the experiment of trusting God, and bringing everything to the Lord Jesus in prayer. Ask him, "Has it answered?" There is no doubt what his reply will be. If the evidence for the truth of Christianity were to be compressed into one word, that word is "experience.'' The contemptuous disregard of this immense mass of human experience and testimony by unbelievers is neither rational nor just
An appeal to God.
"Arise, O Lord," etc. The mysteries of life are no modern discovery. They perplexed and oppressed the souls of ancient saints, often well-nigh to the overthrow of faith. They are aggravated and emphasized by the fact, which we perhaps fail sufficiently to grasp, that Israel stood alone among nations as the witness to the unity, holiness, and truth of God. The host of surrounding peoples, some of them at the very summit of worldly greatness, worshipped "gods many and lords many." Hence Israel's enemies could not but be regarded as God's enemies; Israel's cause as God's cause.
I. AN APPEAL TO GOD AS THE LORD OF THE WHOLE WORLD, to manifest his sovereignty. The word for "man" expresses mortal weakness. Q.d.: "Let not weak mortals fancy themselves strong enough, or seem to others strong enough, to defy thy rule, break thy Law, disregard thy displeasure." Psalms 9:8 shows that the world of mankind is in view, not merely Israel. The broad universal spirit of the Old Testament Scriptures is among the notes of inspiration. In the sacred enclosure of Israel the psalmist saw men sinning against light; in the great outlying world of heathendom he saw them sinning without the light of revelation (Romans 2:12-14). But in all, the root-mischief is the same—human self-will. If all men, instead of pleasing themselves, set themselves to do God's will, a change would pass over all life, private and public, like the breaking forth of spring out of winter. Faith does not dictate to God how or when men are to be brought to their right senses; to see that God is God, and men "but men"—weak, frail, ignorant, sinful. But faith longs and pleads that it be done.
II. THERE ARE TIMES AND CIRCUMSTANCES which give to this appeal special urgency. In ancient Israel, when idolatry threatened to suppress true religion; or heathen invaders threatened the national existence. For the Christians of the first three centuries, in the deadly persecutions of the Roman emperors. For lovers of God's pure Word and of freedom, during the dark years before the Reformation, in the gigantic growth of superstition, corruption, and ecclesiastical tyranny. The blood of Albigenses, Lollards, Huguenots, and a great army of martyrs beside, seemed to cry for vengeance (Revelation 6:10). In our own time the frightful prevalence of crime and vice, and of squalid misery in the midst of wasteful luxury; the murderous war-preparations of Christian nations; the slow progress of the gospel where it is matched against the mighty forces of heathenism, Buddhism, Mohammedanism; and the bold and subtle forms of atheism or unbelief that fill the very atmosphere of our age;—all these awaken in our hearts this earnest, passionate longing; try our faith with this deep perplexity (Isaiah 64:1). Multitudes of earnest Christians find no comfort but in the belief that the second coming of the Lord is near at hand. They echo St. John's "come quickly" (Revelation 22:20).
III. THE GOSPEL SHEDS A LIGHT ON THIS MYSTERY, which prophets and kings of old longed for, but could not see (see 2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:3). God could crush and stamp out sin, and destroy sinners quickly enough, by his almighty power. But his amazing purpose has been and is to "overcome evil with good;" subdue unbelief and rebellion, not by vengeance, but love. Mercy rejoices against judgment. The cross—grace and truth by Jesus Christ-exerts a power impossible before. The prophets show the possibility of the penitent being pardoned (Isaiah 1:18; Ezekiel 33:11, etc.). Yet Manasseh's conversion is almost a solitary instance. The regeneration of a nation—as of nations of cannibal savages in our own day by the preaching of the gospel—was a thing impossible. Hence inspired psalmists saw no alternative but either the prosperity of the wicked or their destruction (Luke 9:54 56; Luke 24:46, Luke 24:47). But power will not always sleep, nor judgment tarry (2 Peter 3:7, 2 Peter 3:10; 2 Thessalonians 1:7, 2 Thessalonians 1:9).
HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE