Relations of ruler and people.
"Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion," etc. This psalm would be very defective if it ended without such a prayer as this. For David the penitent transgressor, David the inspired psalmist, was also David the anointed of God, king of his people Israel. Modern criticism, eager to use its sharp shears, would cut away these two verses as added by a later hand. But modern criticism, keen and accomplished as it is, is sorely lacking in sympathy and imagination. As matter of history, David's work of "building the walls of Jerusalem" was left incomplete, and finished by Solomon (2 Samuel 5:9; 1 Kings 9:15; 1 Kings 11:27). But he knew and felt that the true wall of Zion was God's protection (Psalms 125:2). And as his people Israel had shared the shame, though not the guilt, of his crimes, he trusted they would share the blessing of God's pardoning mercy and restoring grace. We are reminded—
I. NATIONS SUFFER THROUGH THEIR RULERS' SINS. What is guilt in the ruler is calamity for the people. This is not arbitrary or unjust. It is hut a case of the great law of solidarity pervading human life (Romans 14:7). So with the parent and the family, teacher and scholars, head of a business and all in his employ. Power and privilege mean tremendous responsibility. No men have such heavy burdens as rulers, and few get less sympathy.
II. NATIONAL SAFETY LIES IN GOD'S PROTECTION. Scarcely even the history of Israel illustrates this more wonderfully than the history of our own nation.
III. PRAYER FOR OUR COUNTRY IS A WEIGHTY DUTY, A HIGH PRIVILEGE, AND CLAIMS A CONSTANT PLACE IN OUR PUBLIC, FAMILY, PRIVATE DEVOTIONS. (Psalms 122:6.) Yet a venerable Jewish tradition. It belongs to the time when the temple at Jerusalem had not even been thought of. The tabernacle was at Nob, not far from the Mount of Olives. It is possible to maintain Christian life in secrecy and solitude. But that is not what the New Testament describes as history, and reveals as Christ's will. It is neither natural nor safe. Mushrooms may grow in cellars; not fruit trees. The embodiment of spiritual life in fellowship is one of the most remarkable presentments of the New Testament records. Wherever the gospel took root, the fence of Church fellowship was built round it, not by man's wisdom, but by him who said, "I will build my Church."
IV. THEREFORE THE ROOT OF CHRISTIAN LIFE, THE SECRET OF ITS FULNESS, BEAUTY, FRUIT-BEARING, IS PERSONAL FAITH. "I will trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever." The olive did not grow because it was planted in the house of the Lord, but because God put the hidden life into the seed. Church forms are but a delusion and a danger, if trusted in, to those who are strangers to the hidden life (Galatians 2:20).
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH