The essence, certainty, and preciousness of Divine revelation.
"Thy Name is nigh." This rendering is given in the margin of the Revised Version, and another in the text. The difference arises from the exceeding brevity of the Hebrew making the sense doubtful. But the sense given in our Authorized Version is supported by weighty authorities; and has the advantage of being at once full of meaning and full of grandeur. We may regard it as bringing before us the essence, the certainty, and the preciousness of Divine revelation.
I. ESSENCE OF DIVINE REVELATION. The possibility of knowing God, and the possibility of conversing, holding communion, with God are the two fundamental truths of revelation. Apart from these, the Bible would give us nothing but dead history, barren doctrine, baseless imagination. The first is expressed in the Scriptures by the Name of God; the second by his drawing near to us, and bringing us near to him.
1. God's Name stands in Scripture for all that we can know and do know of him. Names are the instruments of all our knowledge. What we cannot name, or name wrongly, we do not know. Giving names was the beginning of speech (Genesis 2:19). Moses, therefore, asked how he was to name God to Israel (Exodus 3:13-15; comp. Exodus 33:19; Exodus 34:6, Exodus 34:7; Exodus 23:21; Proverbs 18:10).
2. Communion with God and enjoyment of his favour are constantly expressed under this image of God's nearness (though "in him we live," etc.) (Deuteronomy 4:7; Psalms 145:18; Proverbs 15:29; Jeremiah 12:2; Ephesians 2:13, Ephesians 2:17).
II. THE CERTAINTY. How do we know that we know God, and that we can converse with him? By the evidence of experience, historical and personal. "That thy Name is near, thy wondrous works declare." Divine revelation goes exactly on the lines of human nature and life. We know one another—our fellow human beings by speech and action. These reveal character. The Bible is the continuous record of God's manifestation of himself to men by word and by deed. His works of nature reveal him (Psalms 19:1; Romans 1:19, Romans 1:20). But he has" magnified his Word above all his Name;" q.d. the living voice of his prophets and the record in Scripture of their message, has brought God near to us, and us to him, as nature never could—yet a very large part of Scripture itself consists in the record of his "wondrous deeds, his dealings with his Church and mankind." Above all, the incarnation, the personal life, and atonement of the Lord Jesus, reveal God as nothing else can (John 17:3; John 14:9; 1 John 4:9; 2 Peter 1:16).
III. THE PRECIOUSNESS. "Unto thee do we give thanks." What blessing, what treasure, is comparable with this—the certainty that God is near, and is known!—not the infinite Unknowable, but our Father in Christ Jesus. We do not pretend to a complete knowledge of God. The Bible, far from professing to give such knowledge, declares it impossible (Job 11:7; Psalms 139:6; Isaiah 55:9). We do not completely know our fellow men or our own selves. But we know all we need to know. Our knowledge, as far as it goes, is real and certain (John 1:18; Job 28:28; Jeremiah 9:23, Jeremiah 9:24). It is an ample resting place, both for intellect and heart (Matthew 11:28).
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY