The psalmist giveth instruction to rich and poor. To the chief musician, A psalm for the sons of Korah. 1 Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world: 2 Both low and high, rich and poor, together. 3 My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. 4 I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp. 5 Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about? 6 They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; 7 None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: 8 (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:) 9 That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption. 10 For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others. 11 Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names. 12 Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. 13 This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah. 14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. 15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah. 16 Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; 17 For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him. 18 Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself. 19 He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light. 20 Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish. LECTURE 884. The rich must beware of pride and the poor of discontent. With what a solemn and affecting call on our attention does this psalm begin! "Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world: Both low and high, rich and poor, together." And truly the subject treated of deeply concerns these two classes of mankind; the rich that they may learn the vanity of their riches, the poor that they may cease to be discouraged by their poverty. Because money, as the wise man says, "an swereth all things," Eccles. 10. 19, because it is the key to all earthly pleasures and possessions, therefore they who have it in abundance are apt to trust in it, to presume upon it, and to despise and oppress those who have it not. This is their temptation. Whilst, on the other hand, they who have none are tempted to despond, and to look upon themselves as exposed to danger from the ill treatment of the rich, and to consider themselves as less highly favoured by the Lord. But see, says the psalmist, for this seems to be his meaning, see how vain a thing wealth is. The wealthy cannot deliver one another from death, they cannot save themselves from dying. The redemption of the life of man, whether from dying, or from that judgment which is after death, is a thing of much greater price than all their wealth; and it must be let alone by them for ever. The most prudent and skilful of them all must die, and they see that it must be so, must die as surely as the most ignorant and dull. They may seek to perpetuate their name by giving it to their houses or estates. But notwithstanding all the fame which they thus acquire, they die as surely as the beasts of the field. Their worldly maxims may be praised and practised by their posterity. But for all this they must be laid in the grave like sheep. They that fared sumptuously every day must become the food of death. And those of them who abuse the power which wealth gives them, will find that in the morning of the resurrection, "the upright shall have dominion over them;" the righteous, however poor, however powerless on earth, will be exalted to the place of power and great glory in heaven. Let the rich then beware of trusting in their riches. Let them be on their guard against the temptations which, in all ages of the world, have beset the wealthy, the temptations of pride, arrogance, wilfulness, selfishness, and self sufficiency. Let the poor, too, beware of thinking, that because they are poor, God cares less for them. Let them beware of grudging the rich their riches, and murmuring against God in their own poverty. Rather let both rich and poor set their affections on things above. Let them both consider the supreme importance of eternity; and the vanity of all earthly goods, except so far as either by spending them aright, or by being content to do without them, we become more meet for heaven. The glory which we get here by gaining money for ourselves cannot go with us into another world; but the riches of God's grace and mercy can. highest worldly rank, in the case of one who lives without the knowledge of God, will not exempt its possessor from dying without hope. But they which repent and believe, which love and obey, these whether rich or poor, however sure to die, are privileged to say when death approaches, "God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me.” The The psalmist setteth forth the judgment of God. 1 The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. 2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. 3 Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. 4 He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. 5 Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. 6 And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah. 7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Ísrael, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God. 8 I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me. 9 I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds. 10 For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. 11 I know all the fowls of the mountains and the wild beasts of the field are mine. : 12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. 13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? 14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most high: 15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. 16 But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? 17 Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee. 18 When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. 19 Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. 20 Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son. 21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. 22 Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. 23 Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God. LECTURE 885. The end of the formalist, and that of the devout. The Lord has here a controversy with his people Israel, which we may apply also to his solemn judgment hereafter to be passed upon all believers in Christ. The inhabitants of all the world are summoned. The Judge appears in clouds of glory, terrible to his enemies, and gathers together "his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Matt. 24. 31. How He will deal with others of mankind we are not here informed. But as to those who have been members of his church, parties to his covenant, professed believers in Christ, either under the Law or under the Gospel, on them He will pass a judgment which will most signally manifest the righteousness of the Judge to a whole approving universe. And the tenour of it is this. He will not be extreme to mark omissions of the ceremonial services of the Law. He would not have those who were bound to pay them think that it was any gain to Him to receive them. He would have them know that all creatures in the world are his, whether man offers them in sacrifice or not. And the thing which He will therefore chiefly look to in judging of our ceremonial observances, is the devotion of heart with which we render them, the thankfulness which animates our praises, the sincerity of our vows, the faithfulness and earnestness of our prayers, and the settled purpose of our souls to glorify Him in all our offerings, and prayers, and praises, and in all the actions of our life. The formalist, then stript of his pretences, will be found to be no other than the wicked. And to have made profession of God's covenant will only aggravate his guilt, if he have been a thief, a liar, or a slanderer in thought, or word, or deed. "Now consider this, ye that forget God." Ye, who because God forbears punishment for a time, suppose that He cares not for your sinning, and fall into such forgetfulness of what God is as to live without Him in the world; consider the truth here set before you. Be assured that the day is coming, when He will expose your hollow heartedness; the day when He, who is now graciously waiting to save you, will be found no less able to destroy. And oh, consider this also, that if you now serve God in earnest, both praising Him with your lips and glorifying Him by the well ordered conversation of your lives, He will shew you his salvation, He will shew it by actually saving you. David confesseth his sin and prayeth for pardon. To the chief musician, A psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. 1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. 5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. 9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniqui ties. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. 12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. 13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. 14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. 15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. 16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. 18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar. LECTURE 886. The way of pardon and peace to the penitent. Here may the true penitent learn how to open all his grief to God, and how to pour out all his soul in earnest prayer for God's forgiveness. Let him plead God's lovingkindness, and the multitude of his tender mercies. Let him beg to be washed and cleansed, as one that is aware how foul sin makes the soul. Let him without reserve acknowledge his transgression unto God, |