True and false worship.
In strong, nervous language we have here presented to us—
I. THE MAJESTY AND THE POWER OF GOD. (Psalms 115:3.) The heathen, in their ignorance, want to know where Jehovah is; they cannot see him. The reply is that he does not dwell in temples made with hands; that he is not confined to one building, larger or smaller; that no earthly trappings or grandeurs in any sacred city give any notion of his state. "Our God is in the heavens;" he dwells in celestial glory; he is high above us; his throne is not found here or there, but everywhere; beneath every sky you may look up and say, "God reigns on high." But not only does majesty belong to him, all power is his. "He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased." The psalmist does not state, but he suggests, that everything the idols could not do was within the power of the living God. He was speaking to men everywhere and at all times—in the sunshine and in the storm, in the dew and in the snow, in the con sciences of men, in the words of his prophets, in the divinely given Law. He saw all things and all men: "His eyes beheld, and his eyelids tried, the children of men." He heard everything; to his ears came the faintest whisper that proceeded from the lip. of the lowliest, as well as the songs of the great congregation. He wrought every thing; his hands fashioned us ourselves, and made all things about and above and beneath us: he "lays his hand upon us," to inspire and renew us. And though it never pleases God, and never can please him, to do anything that is unholy or unjust or unkind, yet is there no limit to his power. "All things are possible" to him. The spheres of nature, providence, and grace supply ample evidence that apparent impossibilities give way before his Divine wisdom and overcoming might.
II. THE FOLLY AND THE DOOM OF THE IDOLATER. (Psalms 115:2, Psalms 115:4-8.)
1. He thinks that God cannot be anywhere because his eyes have not rested on his form (Psalms 115:2).
2. He continues to worship an image which owes its existence to his own cunning (Psalms 115:4), and which cannot use its own organs (Psalms 115:4-7), which are helpless and powerless (see Isaiah 44:9-20).
3. He is destined to be miserably disappointed in the object of his trust; he will gain no help in his time of need, and, being thus unbefriended, he will himself lose heart and strength; the impotence of the idol will be conveyed to its deluded worshipper.
4. He will become like his idol in the moral character he ascribes to the deity. "Like priest, like people" is not so true an adage as "Like god, like people." Men always tend to become such, in character and life, as is the deity they adore.
III. THE PRIVILEGE AND THE DUTY OF THE DEVOUT. (Psalms 115:9-11.) The worshippers of the true and living God:
1. Have at their right hand an Almighty Friend, one who
2. Should place in him an unfaltering trust. It becomes all the people of God (Psalms 115:9), especially all those who hold any position of prominence in Israel (Psalms 115:10), and particularly those who know and who declare themselves to be his servants, to put their trust in him. It is a painful spectacle when the avowed children of God begin, even at the very outbreak of trouble, to show signs of agitation and alarm. That does not "become the gospel" (Philippians 1:27); it does not "become saints" (Ephesians 5:3). It is unworthy of those to whom Christ has spoken such words as those he uttered (Matthew 6:25-34; Matthew 28:20; John 14:1, John 14:2, John 14:21-23).
IV. PIETY IN ITS MATURITY. (Psalms 115:1.) We may begin our Christian life by an earnest craving for the salvation of our own soul. Later on, when we have learnt some thing of the wisdom which is in Christ, we make our personal hope second and subordinate to the glory of Christ. We pray that his great and holy Name may be magnified. We are willing to be nothing, that he may be all in all.
1. Because of all that we have experienced of his mercy and his truth—the mercy that redeemed and restored us, the truth that has nourished and strengthened us—we long and pray for this.
2. In order that his mercy and his truth may be extended to every land and every home, this is our prayer. We may test the progress we have made in our Christian course by the unselfishness, the Christwardness, of our devotion.