The fountain of life.
This short but sublime psalm opens in a minor key. With a few powerful strokes the psalmist paints the blindness, untruthfulness, blasphemous presumption of an ungodly life—a life void of godly fear, and of that hatred of evil without which there is no true love of goodness. Then as with a sudden recoil from this hateful spectacle, the psalmist turns to God, pouring forth a noble strain of praise. He contemplates God's mercy, truth, justice, bountiful providence, and loving-kindness to his children (Psalms 36:9). May be looked at as the crowning point of this hymn of worship, at which praise turns to prayer.
I. GOD IS THE SOLE ORIGINAL POSSESSOR OF LIFE—UNDERIVED, SELF-SUSTAINED, ETERNAL. "The Father hath life in himself" (John 5:26). "God draws existence from his own self. We possess but a borrowed existence; being is not native to us. As in our turn, one by one, we shall pass out of this life, and the world will go on its way without us; so, if God willed, we might pass out of being, and the universe would not miss us" (Saurin). But God "inhabiteth eternity" (Isaiah 57:15). This truth, the foundation of religion, is sublimely set forth in the Old Testament, especially in contrast with the vanity of idols; and is shadowed forth in the personal name by which God entered into covenant with his people (Exodus 3:14; Exodus 6:3; comp. Isaiah 43:10-13; Isaiah 44:6; so in the New Testament, John 17:3; Revelation 4:9, Revelation 4:10).
II. GOD IS THE AUTHOR AND SUSTAINER OF LIFE. The variety, beauty, activity, fruitfulness, joy, of the life of all living creatures are so many streams, whose inexhaustible fountain is in him (Acts 17:25, Acts 17:28). From the gigantic trees of California and Australia, four hundred or five hundred feet in height, to the all but invisible moss on Arctic snows; from the eagle, soaring above the mountain peaks, the elephant in his massive strength, the whale plunging deep in ocean, to those creatures revealed by our strongest-lenses, tens of thousands of which find ample space in a few drops of water;—all draw life and being every moment from him. The least is as carefully designed and finished as the highest. Let us not forget how these two worlds of life—plants and animals—are balanced and made mutually dependent: the plant feeding on the air which the animal breathes out, and which to itself is poison, and giving back that which the plant needs not, but which to the animal is the breath of life. Even death and decay are made to minister to life. The creatures appear and vanish, like waves on the great river of life; but the river flows on, for its fountain is in God (Psalms 104:27-31). Shall we imagine that this is true only of our small world, and that all the suns and systems with which space teems are splendid deserts? Or is not Isaiah 45:18 true of many and many another world as of our own?
III. SPIRITUAL LIFE—MAN'S HIGHEST LIFE—LIKE BODILY LIFE, HAS ITS FOUNTAIN IN GOD. He alone bestows and sustains it. We share with the lower creatures the life of sensation and conscious activity. But we have also (whether we heed it or not) a higher life, or capacity of life—the life of personal character, which may be cultivated and perfected in personal communion with God. Each one has in him germs of good and of happiness; germs, too, of evil and misery, for whose full development this life does not afford room. Each human spirit, a world in itself, has in it material for heaven or hell. This is so, whether we like to think so or no. More than this, Scripture reveals (what we could never have discovered, reasonable as it is) that the Spirit of God, personally bestowed and dwelling in us, creates and sustains this higher life (John 3:6). The most vigorous life—bright intellect, intense emotion, strenuous will, fruitful activity—if destitute of living communion with God, and devoid of his Spirit, is pronounced in Scripture but a living death (Ephesians 2:1, Ephesians 2:4, Ephesians 2:5; 1 John 5:12).
LESSONS.
1. Worship. If we could rise to the height of these words, fathom their depth, read their full meaning, our souls would he bowed, yet uplifted in adoration—filled with the glorious sense of the majesty, the mystery, the infinite greatness and goodness of God (1 Timothy 1:17; 1 Timothy 6:15, 1 Timothy 6:16).
2. Submission. He with whom is the fountain of life must determine how and how long the stream shall flow. Our lives belong to him. When he withdraws life he is not taking away what we have any right or claim to—only what is his (Hebrews 9:27). But the Lord Jesus holds the key (Revelation 1:18).
3. Faith in Jesus. Christ is the Possessor and Dispenser of spiritual life (John 5:26). All the streams of both physical and spiritual life flow through him (Colossians 1:15, Colossians 1:16; John 1:3). He came to give life (John 10:10)., But a man might die of thirst at the brink of a full-flowing fountain, if he would not drink. So, with infinite pathos, our Saviour says, "Ye will not come" (John 5:40). But all who will are freely bidden (John 7:37-39; Revelation 22:17).
HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE