This psalm breathes the spirit of aspiration. It speaks of the earth as the Lord's; but we are not to rest with the earth. The call is," Who will ascend?" As one of our own poets has said—
''Not to the earth confined, ascend to heaven."
Aspiration is an instinct of the heart. The young man is full of hope. Nothing seems to him impossible. His spirit leaps within him, longing to take part with others in the struggle of life.
"Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new,
That which they have done but earnest of the things that they shall do."
Often such aspirations come to little. Work is hard. Progress is difficult. Things turn out so different from what was expected. Some fail. Others falter and lose heart. Others sink down to the dull routine of business, and the bright vision that charmed their youthful fancy fades away. But there are some who succeed. They have had ambitions, and they have stuck to them. They have had purposes, and have courageously carried them out. But if their aspirations have been limited to this world, success brings no real satisfaction. Byron found himself famous, and for a while was a great power; but how miserable were his last days! Even Gibbon, when he had brought his great work, that cost three and thirty years of labour, to an end, felt anything but quite satisfied. "I will not dissemble," he writes at Lausanne, "the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and, perhaps, the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind, by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that whatsoever might be the future fate of my History, the life of the historian must be short and precarious". Our aspirations need guidance and support. The true ascent is to "the hill of the Lord," and "his holy place." The Hebrews had much to stimulate them in the very conditions of things. They had to "go up" to Jerusalem, and when they went to the house of the Lord, the way was "still upward"—from the entrance to the holy place (Ezekiel 41:7). And all this was made helpful to them as regards higher things. But we have greater aids and encouragements. We have "the hope of glory;" the lives of the good who have gone before us; the voices of the prophets; the example of our blessed Lord; and the promise of the Holy Spirit. Every true life has its Jerusalem, and we must "go from strength to strength," still upward, if we are at last to reach the joy and peace of God. There are difficulties, as there will be in the way of all high endeavours; but we are comforted with the promise of help and the assurance of success. Thought is good, "meditated action" is better, but right action carried out, and that to the end, is best of all. If we are of the generation that seek God (Psalms 24:6), then our motto will be, "Death to evil, and life to good." If we open our hearts to the King of glory, then under his leading our path shall ever be onward and upward, till at last we stand in the holy place, and receive the blessing from the Lord.
"Breathe me upward, thou in me
Aspiring, who art the Way, the Truth, the Life!
That no truth henceforth seem indifferent,
No way to truth laborious, and no life—
Not even this life I live—intolerable"
('Aurora Leigh.')
W.F.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT