The right of God's people to address him with complaint and expostulation.
No doubt the ordinary attitude of God's people towards their Maker and Ruler should be one of the most profound resignation and submission to his will. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25). Yet on occasions it is allowed them to "speak with him as a man speaketh with his friend" (Exodus 33:11), to plead, expostulate, complain; even, in a certain sense, to reproach. Job pleaded with God at great length, and God was not angered, but "accepted" him (Job 42:9), and testified in his favour that he had "spoken right "(Job 42:8). In the Psalms David pleads, complains, expostulates. "Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?" (Psalms 10:1). "How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? For ever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?" (Psalms 13:1, Psalms 13:2). "Lord, how long wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their destructions … Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me … For they speak not peace: but they devise deceitful matters … This thou hast seen, O Lord: keep not silence: O Lord, be not far from me. Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord' (Psalms 35:17-23). "Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way; though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death. If we have forgotten the name of God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god; shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart. Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever. Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?… Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies' sake" (Psalms 44:18-26). Such expostulations as these do not anger God, but, on the contrary, arc pleasing and acceptable. They show earnestness, confidence, faith, a trust in his goodness, a conviction that he will surely show himself on the side of truth and righteousness. They are within the limits of the "liberty wherewith Christ has made us free" (Galatians 5:1). Caution, however, must be used, lest liberty degenerate into licence—lest complaint and expostulation pass into "murmuring." After all, God best knows what is best for us, and will assuredly do what is best for us. We are safe in his hands. In his own good time he will give us all that we need. Let us not be impatient, or imagine ourselves wiser than he. If he delays to give us that which we desire, we may be sure that there is a reason for the delay. In quietness and confidence should be our strength.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON