Stability out of trust.
The key-note of this psalm is a fear lest the restored Israel should again prove faithless and backsliding, as in the older time. "The pious psalmist trembles lest the blasts of foreign tyranny, which have swept upon the sacred nation with such protracted severity, should uproot it from its basis of true religion. The long domination of a heathen power during the recent Exile, and the present molestations of the semi-idolatrous Samaritans, must doubtless have had their effects on the weak-hearted among the psalmist's countrymen. In the Dresent poem, therefore, words of consolation and of threatening are naturally blended. The faithful, says the psalmist, need not be terrified, for calamity shall not endure; they have a firm foundation, which cannot totter, and Jehovah is to them a bulwark, deterring the oppressive foe who would pervert them from their holy faith." Mount Zion should not be confused with Mount Moriah. It represents the people as a whole, the nation as a nation, not exclusively regarded in its religious obligations and relations. The poetical conception of a mountain is firmness, because resting on broad and deep foundations. The earthquake is thought of as the most awful of forces, because it can even shake the mountains. The rootage of the mountains at the very center of the earth is a figure of the rootage a nation or a soul has by its trust in God. Or as the cedar on the hillside, it is free to wave in the storm-winds, because it clasps and twines about the rock of God.
I. STABILITY CANNOT COME OUT OF CIRCUMSTANCES. They do but shake us to and fro, and make us stagger up and down. Illustrate from the various experiences of the Israelite nation. No kind of restfulness can possibly be gained while we wait on circumstances.
II. STABILITY CANNOT COME OUT OF KNOWLEDGE. "For knowledge is of things we see," and these all lie in the range of the circumstantial. It is curious that men should have such confidence in the certainty of knowledge, when there is nothing in the world so fluctuating. What men stoutly affirm they know today they relegate to the list of exploded theories to-morrow. Being a creature, man's secret of rest must be the dependence of faith, and not the certitude of knowledge. A very striking illustration of the instability of the results of even advanced learning is given by Mr. L. Hastings. The following is a list of the discordant hypotheses of the so-called "Higher Criticism," published since 1850, on the origin and authorship of the Old and New Testament books: "For Genesis there have been 16 theories, Exodus 13:1-22, Leviticus 22:1-33, Numbers 8:1-26, Deuteronomy 17:1-20; total for Pentateuch, 76 theories. For Joshua 10:1-43, 7:1-25, Ruth 4:1-22, Samuel 20, Kings 24, Chronicles 17, Esdras 14, Nehemiah 11:1-36, Esther 6:1-14; total for historical books, 113. For Job 26:1-14, Psalms 19:1-14, Proverbs 24:1-34, Ecclesiastes 21, Canticles 18; total for poetical books, 108. For Isaiah 27:1-13, Jeremiah 24:1-10, Lamentations 10, Ezekiel 15:1-8, Daniel 22; total for great prophets, 98. For all the minor prophets, 144. Total for the Old Testament, 539. For Matthew 10:1-42, Luke 9:1-62, Mark 7:1-37, John 15:1-27; total for Gospels, 41. Acts 12:1-25, Paul's Epistles 111, other Epistles 44; total for New Testament, 208. Grand total of theories for the entire Bible, 747. Of these 603 have already gone into oblivion, and there is no reason to fear that many of the remaining 144 may not soon follow them to the shelves of the libraries, to be dusted no more." Or illustration may be taken from scientific knowledge. So incomplete and uncertain is even such knowledge, that a scientific book more than ten years old is now regarded as out of date and untrustworthy. We can never find security in our own particular knowledge, seeing that we are ever growing out of our own past of imperfection.
III. STABILITY CAN ONLY COME OUT OF TRUST. It may seem strange to say, but the most reliable thing is the human heart. "Many waters cannot quench love." Let it once get its grip, it holds tight, and will die rather than loosen that grip. But when we speak of trust, two things are in mind: