The mystery of man's being.
The psalm shows that the knowledge of God brings peace. It appeals to God's omniscience, that which would confound him if he were not at peace with God. They who are not hide away from God, and dread the truth the psalm declares. But let us listen to the patriarch Job (Job 22:21). The psalmist had done so, and hence he is able now to challenge even the all-searching eye and the absolute knowledge of God, to attest his sincerity and the integrity of his heart. No hypocrite or pretender to piety could possibly do this, or ever can. Our text tells how God had known man from the beginning of his life—must know him, for he had created him. This leads to reflection on the mystery of man's being. Note—
I. THE TRUTH OF THE PSALMIST'S ASSERTION. "I am fearfully and wonderfully made" Now, this is true:
1. As regards the body. This is what the psalmist had mainly in his thoughts. Now, our corporeal structure is wonderful, whether we regard it as a whole or in its separate parts. But it is "fearful" also; there is an awe and mystery about it, as his soul knew right well. That it should be subject to pain and disease; that it should be so often a clog to the spirit and a hindrance to our higher life rather than a help; and that it should be ever hastening deathwards, and be at last a prey to corruption. And yet God made it—not man.
2. As regards the soul. It is marvelous, whether, as with the body, we consider it in its entirety or in its several parts—intellect, imagination, affections, judgment, conscience, will. How wonderful it is! But how fearful also! That it should be born with a fatal bias and tendency towards evil; that thus it is in continual peril, and is often in bondage to sin; and it can perish, and, so far as we can see, it often does. And yet God formed the soul as he did the body. How true that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made"!
II. THE SPIRIT IN WHICH WE ARE TO REGARD THIS TRUTH. With praise. "I will praise thee." So speaks the psalmist.
1. Many wonder how he or any one could possibly do this. Some even dare to censure and blame the Creator that he has made man so; and they audaciously assert that the coming judgment will not be so much God calling us to account for what we have done, as man calling God to account for what he has done. Far enough are such from the spirit of this psalm.
2. But we cannot but ask—What was the ground of the psalmist's praise? Now, it was not in spite of evil, defying and scorning it; nor ignoring it, for none were more sensible of it; nor by minimizing it in comparison with the superabundant good. And, in comparison with the good gifts of God, evil is as the small dust in the balance—not worthy of account, though to us here and now it looms so large. But not for such reasons is this praise. But because by means of this strange and fearful mingling of evil in our constitution we come to know, as otherwise we could not, the highest good. God has caused that sin should be as a foil to make more manifest his grace. The devil meant only our harm. God turned it round to good. Thus we come to know evil and hate it; we come to know God in Christ, and to love him as we never else should have loved him; the unfallen angels cannot love him as we may and will and do. And we come to know good—holiness, purity, truth, and to hunger for them, and to rejoice in them as else we had not done.
III. THE LESSON TO BE LEARNT. If God turns the greatest ill into good, be sure he will all lesser ones. But it is only by the knowledge of God that evil is thus transformed. Praise him evermore!—S.C.
God's searching desired.
In these verses we seem to be standing by a fair river, a very river of the water of life—full, flowing, beautiful, fertilizing; a joy to all beholders and all who dwell by it. And as we look back at the former parts of this "crown of the psalms," as it has been called, we see the lofty spiritual heights from whence this river has flowed down; we realize the glorious truths about God—his omnipresence and omniscience—which are the source from whence this prayer we are to consider has sprung. But such thoughts about God have not always such results. They are terrors to the mind of the godless, and of all who are not walking in the light of the Lord. Hence the truths taught in this psalm serve as a test of our own spiritual condition. Are they welcome to us, or the reverse? They cannot be welcome to an ungodly soul, but they are to such as him who wrote this psalm. Now, in our text, note—
I. WHAT IS IMPLIED.
1. That there has been a previous searching of ourselves. Here is one great excellence of this prayer—it compels sincerity. For how can the sin-loving man pray, "Search me, O God!" when he can see quite plainly himself what he is? And how, "See if there be," etc; when there is no "if" at all? It is only those who, like Peter, can lay bare their hearts, and say, "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee," that can thus pray. We do not say that a man must be sinless, but he must be sincere. Can we pray this prayer?
2. That our searching is not sufficient. It is implied, what all experience proves so surely, that none of us can understand his errors; and we ever need God to cleanse us from our secret, hidden, and so, to us, unknown faults. "The heart is deceitful above all things; … who can know it?" None but God can.
II. THE REGIONS WHERE GOD'S SEARCHING IS FELT TO BE NEEDED.
1. In the heart. Our life is visible to others and to ourselves, and our words audible, but our hearts are neither. The seeds of conduct and character are so minute, so seemingly insignificant, our motives are of such mingled, mixed nature, so chameleon-like, that we are baffled.
2. In the thoughts. "Try me … thoughts." They need to be tried; they often seem right when they are not so. Judas was, no doubt, self-deceived in this way, thinking his thought to be right when it was all evil. And God does try them; he is ever applying his tests and revealing us to ourselves, as the moonlight reveals the ship that crosses its path, as the lightning reveals the unseen precipice. And he does this for gracious purposes, that so we may be led to betake ourselves to this prayer.
3. The ways. "See if … way in me." The prayer confesses that a man's ways are in him before he is in them. There were evil ways he knew—behind him, and he had gone in them; around him, many were going in them; before him, seeking to attract him. But all this did not matter so long as they were not in him. That the ship should be in the water is all right; but for the water to he in the ship! It is what is in us which is all-important.
III. THE ULTIMATE OBJECT OF THIS PRAYER. That he might be led "in the way everlasting."
1. There is such a way—the way of the everlasting God.
2. And the ways of God are fitly so called. Other ways may go on for a long distance, but they are cut short at last.
3. All joy, goodness, and strength are in these ways; all that the heart can desire, all that can bless our fellow-men, and that can glorify Christ.
4. And in these ways we need to be "led," not merely have them shown to us. Many see them, but do not walk in them; and none ever will unless the Lord leads them. But this he is most willing to do. If sincerely we pray this prayer, his leading has begun.—S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK