Sermon. LECTURE ON THE FIRST PSALM. By the REV. JOHN WYLIE, D.D., Carluke. THE Book of Psalms, so far as they are David's, embodies the spontaneous outpourings of his heart, in the peculiar circumstances of his singular and eventful history. Yet are they, at the same time, mostly prophetic words, to shew forth the history and feelings of Christ's humanity -His inmost feelings in their outward expression, as including and exhausting, for substance, all holy experience and worship. The psalms thus embody the views and feelings of the regenerate man, in their only perfect form, the man Christ Jesus. I therefore believe it to have been a great mistake, and to have so brought a grievous loss to the Church of God, when they have been, for worship, superseded or neglected for any other compositions, even the best. I do not altogether except even our own paraphrases, excellent in themselves, and approaching the full note of inspiration, as the most of them confessedly do. In such a wonderful way is Jesus, our elder Brother, represented in these psalms, uttering forth His soul unto His | Father, to His people, to His persecutors, and to His own bosom, that the younger brethren, in their circumstances and measure, are able to take part in them, and find to their unspeakable joy, that He is one with them, and they, rightly exercised, one with Him in mind, in heart, in deed, in every word-and that they thus come to know and prove that greatest thing for man-the true worshipping in John also, in his general epistle, writes but of two classes-those of "the Father," and those "of the world," or "the wicked one," in direct allusion, I believe, to the language of these very psalms. And yet, farther, as representing the entire history of "the perfect man," the psalms not only look to Christ, and breathe of Christ, as He was at His first, but as He will be at His second coming also. As He ever looked forward to the end, "the joy set before Him"-a bridal Church, and a redeemed world; so do they, like a full Gospel hymn in prophecy. As to the confession of sin, again, which we meet even in those very psalms, (as the fortieth and sixty-ninth) which Christ expressly applies to Himself, we should understand, that He is, in a peculiar sense, the great and only true confessor of sin, just as He is the one great and only true propitiation for sin; though, and even because, "He had no sin personally." None ever knew and felt about sin, wholly according to the mind and with the feelings of God, but only He, And thus, as the typical lamb or goat, which under the law was offered for sin, took the name which in Hebrew signifies "guilt;" because the guilt, or evil desert of the offerer was, as it were, transferred for acknowledgment to the innocent animal, and typically expiated by its blood: so was this actually true of the great antitype, "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world." (2 Pet. ij. 22. and 2 Cor. v. 21). Thus, in the psalms, Christ and the Church compose but one mystical person, of which He is the head, and the Church is the body. And, as the body speaks by the head, and the head for the body; so He speaks of her sin, and she of His righteousness-He of the sin of the nature He tock, as known and felt by us, in the light and power of the Spirit; and she of her righteousness, only in, by, and with Him, i. e. in His spiritual nature. And this is the key to any and all claim of righteousness by her, and to any and all confession of sin by Him, throughout. for God grudges you a blessedness; as if He could be jealous of His own creature. The lesson of obedience to Jesus was of sorrow, and humiliation, and bitter suffering throughout, and, at last, of death So much, brethren, in aid of your cor- (Isa. 1. 6). But He "was not rebellious, rect conception and your holy use of the neither turned away back"- He was Psalms, the book of the Bible, which, as borne up under it, because He knew and we grow and are tried, we feel, practi- trusted Him who chastened, and said, cally, we could least do without. It so "I know that I shall not be ashamed. testifies to the afflicted heart of man that He is near that justifieth me." Thus it is of God. Therein, the chosen deposi- Adam fell, with our nature and all actary of His own sighs, "the man of sor-companying circumstances at the best. rows " has lodged His choicest consola- Jesus endured and triumphed, with it tions also saying to the soul or church and all accompanying circumstances at conforming to His likeness: "To this the worst. The root, then, of all sin, as fountain resort-'drink, yea, drink abun- we see in the case of Adam, is evil counsel dantly here!"" Blessed they who do so! listened to—a misjudgment of God, whose There we find, as in the Gospel parable, name is Love. While the root of all dethat "the master of the feast has kept liverance and victory over evil, as we are for us the best wine until the last." taught by the history of Jesus, is in be"Yes," as one has said, "when disap- lieving the counsel and warning of love— pointment has overtaken a man-when understanding God, that, however trydeath has been by his side-when sorrowing, His will for us, eventually, is life. or disaster has stricken him-when he This is a great truth-the great root has been thrown down upon himself, and truth to hold fast as the key to the whole every human stay, to which he was wont Bible. And, when this is forgotten, evil to cling, is utterly taken away,—then, counsel is not far to seek. It is the fruit when he would turn to look for aid to one of the fall. The earth is thickly sown higher and mightier than himself, let him with its seed. He who insinuates it, take this book, as the book of the Com-" sitteth in the lurking-places of our vilforter, and 'enter into his chamber, and lages, stands at the corners of our streets," commune with his own heart and be-He presides in many of our great asstill!" To return-This (1st) Psalm is placed as the inscription over the portal of the temple of the Living God, that whosoever has fellowship with it may enter in and worship. Verse 1.-"Blessed is the man," &c. And what a contrast, according to the principle stated for interpreting the psalms does this bring out, at the very opening, between the first and the second Adam-between man, as God intended him to be, in Christ's image, and man as he has made himself! Adam listened to the suggestion of the evil one. Jesus, resisting him by faith in His Father's name and word, as himself beautifully tells us, 66 opened His ear, morning by morning, as a learner” (Isa. 1. 4). The promise of the tempter to Adam was— semblages, and has a soil prepared for his poison in every sinner's heart. And, when once we do listen, the progress is fast and fatal. Our feet decline from the way of peace, and we are soon found again, and found often " standing, the second stage downward, in the way of sinners"-waiting at the meeting-place, where Satan waits to meet with us to "slay souls." We forget and forsake now the meeting-places with God-the secret closet-prayer-the blessed familyprayer-and the place of "solemn assembly"- where God especially "records His name to meet with His people and bless them." The neglected home, the broken-hearted wife, the starving children of many a humble, but once happy home, tell this sad tale over all our land. And so we are at last found settled down "in the seat of the scorn - among the "mockers," whose "bands are made strong"-who hate God and His ways, and speak lightly of His ordinances and servants whose very breath and company spread pollution wherever, in any house or neighbourhood, they are welcomed or suffered. What a picture of Jesus, "the lowly and meek" one, embodying, ay, as it were, absorbing the law into himself! Thus, in a subsequent Psalm, (the fortieth,) He tells prophetically His own history; and this, again, is beautifully expanded in God's Word to Levi, as the effect of His (the only true Levite's) fully declaring it, (Mal. ii. 6.) My hearer, this word is not for the priesthood alone, but also for thee. In the day of thy health and thy prosperity prove this,-seeking in the law and the testimonies of thy God "great spoil," "more than all riches ;" and in the day My people, beware, it needeth but a vain or covetous heart to bring any man to this. (Prov. i. 10, 19). And we have awful illustrations of it in its ripeness, in the so frequent unions, and combinations, and strikes of our day, whose means and weapons are at root intimidation, and whose end is so often misery and strife, nay, even pillage and bloodshed! These of sore trial-even when, with Job's, thy are the incipient movements and band-"complaint is bitter," and "thy stroke ings of Antichrist against "the battle of heavier than thy groaning," then thou the great day of Almighty God." "O canst utter, They will not misgive thee. my soul, come not thou into their secret (Job xxxiii. 6, 8-12.) -unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united." (Gen. xlix. 6). Oh, how unlike the counsel of him, the forerunner of Christ, when He came first (Luke iii.3-14). And such is our counsel now when He is about to come again. To delight thyself in the law of thy God is to "delight thyself in God,”—to lay hold of and cleave to His word, is to lay hold of His great "strength," and to cleave to the living Jehovah. But, O sinner, how canst thou do this-love the law, the commandment-unless and until thou hast first received the Gospel into thy heart?—this as 'glad tidings" to thee? It is to thee but as the doom of death to hear from Sinai, "Do this and live," till thou hast heard first from Calvary, "Look and be saved!" This-even will and power to obey—is the fruit only of the Gospel-of a believed love. But, having once given inlet to this in thy soul, then, from the first moment of thy life of faith to the period when that life is to be swallowed up in light, thy delight and thy life may be in fellowship with Jesus, who in life, and till death, bore about the law of His God in His heart; nay, it was just the consciousness of this that bore Him up through Gethsemane and Calvary; for we question not but that these Psalms, when we are once spiritually taught in them, have the charm of opening up the secret of our own spirit Nor is their guilt less, nor their doom slower, (for the Book knows "no respect of persons") of whom St. James writes (chap. v. 1-5): "Go to now, ye rich men," &c. Suffering children of God, whoever ye be, the great and true Redresser of wrongs is on His way. Yield not to the suggestion of the Tempter to take that into your own hands, which is His prerogative and work-"Vengeance is mine." Men sneer at this. They will mock at the word of the Lord. (Zeph. i. 12.) last clause. They will mock at the work of the Lord (Acts ii. 13). They will mock especially at the coming of the Lord (2 Pet. iii. 3). Yet "the Lord is not slack concerning His promise," &c. And who, alas! of even common sagacity and forecast, sees not, that through accumulation ever increasing, if unused to His glory, and power despotic unexercised in God's love, on the one hand; and through sore oppression and misery, un-ual selves, and strength and joy, and do submitted to in God's fear, on the other, men and the nations are preparing, like the bottles of the prophet, to be dashed against each other! Verse 2.-"But his delight is, &c." remain with, and cling to, the believer, continuing to add to their loveliness and comfort, like a true and faithful friend, who, to our dying hour, is the last to leave us. "My heart and my flesh fail are become “stout-hearted." They are no more like the "root out of a dry ground," who, feeling no true nourishment nor abiding rest here,—in the flesh, of the world, had "tears for his meat, and for his drink weeping." They are striking deeper roots here. They are finding their chief joy here. But now eth," said the Psalmist, "but God is the reluctantly and rarely. They don't seem strength of my heart, and my portion to know it, but they are filling their souls for ever," (Psalm lxxiii. 26.) O Christ- from other and forbidden streams; and, ian, "commune, then, with God on thy if they take not warning, will soon join bed, and be still!" Jesus gave whole in saying: "The goodman is from home," nights to the "Mount of Olives." "I the husband of the Church is away, sleep," says the Church in the song, " but "come, let us take our fill of loves until my heart waketh." There is that to be the morning." But that morning will learnt here in this Psalm, from the mouth bring an awful revealing, and tell this and of the experience of Jesus, which, tale of you: "It shall be as when a like "the best wine that goeth down hungry man," &c., (Isaiah xxix. 8.) And sweetly," causeth the "lips of those that what is the cause? "Is there not a are asleep to speak." So Paul and Silas cause?" They have lifted up themselves "sang praises to God" in the inner prison "at dead midnight." Ay, God still "giveth songs in the night." Thus Luther tells us, that in times of trial for the truth as these of ours, he lifted up his heart and said to his friends, Come, let us sing, God is our refuge,'" &c. (Psalm xlvi.) Verse 3.-" And he shall be like a and here is the time and place to " SOW tree," &c. in tears." "He that goeth forth weepThis is the tree of God, "planted by | ing,” &c., (Psalm cxxvi. 6.) Yes; for He the river of God,"—the "tree of righteous--Jesus-brought forth His fruit only in ness, that He may be glorified." In its root it is Jesus, “the tree of life," whose "leaves are for the healing of the nations." In its branches it is the living members of His body. For, "as the living Father hath given Him to have life in himself," and planted Him as a new root of life in your humanity-my brother and thine-so "hath He given us to have life in Him.” He “lived by the Father," we "live by Him." And this river of life flows through the ordinances of God, the channel of life. But they are not the cause or source of the life; that is always in God, (Psalm xxxvi. 9.) It were an awful delusion to say that none can possess it, unless received through their conveyance. Still the tree is planted there and thus by the Spirit generally. The tree is nourished there and thus by the Spirit generally. The same truth is stated beautifully in Psalm xlvi. 4: "There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God," viz., "the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High." Some seek this life through the appointed channels not at all. They despise them, and so shut themselves out from life. Others seek it now (alas!) the Sabbath, seeking Him elsewhere? I "His season." There was to Him first the sorrow, then the joy; first "the cross," and then "the crown." And has He promised any other history to His Church, or to any saved soul within it? Fools we are that we think so! so suffering Satan and the world to take our "crown.” What said Jesus? (John xvi. 20.) I repeat the word and warning: The tree is planted by "the river of the water of life." ("All my well-springs are in thee," Psalm lxxxvii. 7.) It lives, and grows, and matures into fruit, bearing only thus and there. So, to change the image, the "healing" waters-the waters of joy and life-which the prophet Ezekiel saw,-first, waters "to the ankles," then waters "to the knees," at last "waters to swim in"-i. e., the living soul now, as it were, bathed in God,-these issued from under the threshold "of the house," the true house of God, which is Jesus; for I would tremble to substitute His Church, even His ordinance, for Himself. No; we must first be planted in Jesus, baptized into His Spirit, nourished by His flesh. And are they, who are not seeking Him here on do not believe it. "The Lord is in His holy temple." Jesus knew this, and was ever found there. "He grew," it has been beautifully said, and with great truth and reverence said, "because He ate His food." Would our souls, then, "prosper and be in health?" let us be found on the Sabbath where He was ever found. Let us feed on His food, drink of His drink. How can we grow-be refreshed else? How can we even live else? "God cannot deny himself." We do not grow. We feed in the week on garbage. We gossip and kill time. Even on the Sabbath, we much squander God's especial day of rest-of grace. At the very door of God's house we hasten away and back to some trifling word or engagement with men,-we escape from the solemnity of worship, of fellowship, of "being still with God." Oh, Jesus justifies God's ways against all men. He "drank of the brook by the way," and then "lifted up the head," (Psalm cx. 7.) So He must first "see in us of the travail of His soul," ere He can "be satisfied." He presses the history of His own life as what must, for substance, be ours. "Except a corn of wheat," &c., (John xii. | 24.) Oh, is this, I ask, the religion, being without which all liking to, or experience of which we can aright live, or safely die? We would all like heaven, but few of us like the road; or, rather, the heaven we seek is not God's heaven. We could no more enjoy it, than we now enjoy the God who fills and makes it. "And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." writes St. John to the elect lady, "I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." What a wish, were it but warranted to us for you all, even your prosperity in all else, as "your souls" are prospering! But Verse 4.-"The ungodly are not so," &c. "I saw the wicked in great power," says again the Psalmist, and "spreading himself like a green bay tree," a tree "planted" or "growing in his own soil," more literally,―i. e., not planted in God, in the garden or house of God, (Psalm xcii. 13,) so not fed by the river of God; but delighting in sin, "trusting in uncertain riches," which "cannot profit in the day of wrath." "Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not; yea, I sought him, but he could not be found." The same thought and beautiful imagery we have in Jeremiah xvii. 5-8: “Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord: for he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is: for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." And as are "the ungodly," so are the schemes of the ungodly,-the many deIt was prophetically written of Jesus, visings and hoardings up of this proud (Isaiah liii. 10,) "when thou shalt make and covetous world in which God is not. His soul an offering for sin, He shall see Jesus is coming down with the wind of His seed, He shall prolong His days, and judgment—in the fire of holiness-to sift the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in and prove, to scatter and consume them His hand." "He doeth all things well," all. "His fan is in His hand, and He was the involutary testimony to Him in will thoroughly purge His floor, to the days of His flesh. "It is vain for gather the wheat into His garners, and you," says the Psalmist, "to rise up to burn up the chaff with unquenchable early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of fire." All schemes and kingdoms of this sorrows: for so He (God) giveth it to His world, but the kingdom "which is withbeloved sleeping," (as in Luther's transla- in," and above all, and alone real of them tion,)-i. e., without all this carefulness. all, though now unmanifested, shall be as "Seek first," says Jesus, "the kingdom "the chaff on the summer thrashing. of God," &c., (Luke xii. 33.) "Beloved," floor." He, "the Breaker-up," as well |