Expositions of Holy Scripture | Page 7

the
liberty of the glory of the children of God'? Be that as it may, at all events our second text
opens to us the gates of the heavenly temple, and shows us there the saintly ranks and
angel companies gathered in the city whose walls are salvation and its gates praise. They
harmonise with that other later vision of heaven which the Seer in Patmos beheld, not
only in setting before us worship as the glad work of all who are there, but in teaching the
connection between the praises of men, and the answering hymns of angels. The harps of
heaven are hushed to hear their praise who can sing, 'Thou hast redeemed us to God by
Thy blood,' and, in answer to that hymn of thanksgiving for unexampled deliverance and
resorting grace, the angels around the throne break forth into new songs to the Lamb that
was slain--while still wider spread the broadening circles of harmonious praise, till at last
'every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are
in the sea, and all that are in them,' join in the mighty hymn of 'Blessing, and honour, and
glory, and power, unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and
ever.' Then the rapturous exclamation from human souls redeemed,--'Oh! the blessedness
of the men whom Thou hast loved and saved,' shall be answered by choral praise from
everything that hath breath.
And are you dumb, my friend, in these universal bursts of praise? Is that because you
have not chosen to take the universal blessing which God gives? You have nothing to do
but to receive the things that are freely given to you of God--the forgiveness, the
cleansing, the life, that come from Christ by faith. Take them, and call upon the name of
the Lord, And can you refuse His gifts and withhold your praise? You can be eloquent in
thanks to those who do you kindnesses, and in praise of those whom you admire and love,
but your best Friend receives none of your gratitude and none of your praise. Ignoble
silence and dull unthankfulness--with these you requite your Saviour! 'I tell you that, if
these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out!'

A STAIRCASE OF THREE STEPS
'All those that put their trust in Thee ... them also that love Thy name ... the
righteous.'--PSALM v. 11, 12.
I have ventured to isolate these three clauses from their context, because, if taken in their
sequence, they are very significant of the true path by which men draw nigh to God and
become righteous. They are all three designations of the same people, but regarded under
different aspects and at different stages. There is a distinct order in them, and whether the
Psalmist was fully conscious of it or not, he was anticipating and stating, with wonderful
distinctness, the Christian sequence--faith, love, righteousness.
These three are the three flights of stairs, as it were, which lead men up to God and to
perfection, or if you like to take another metaphor, meaning the same thing, they are
respectively the root, the stalk, and the fruit of religion. 'They that put their trust in
Thee ... them also that love Thy Name ... the righteous.'
I. So, then, the first thought here is that the foundation of all is trust.

Now, the word that is employed here is very significant. In its literal force it really means
to 'flee to a refuge.' And that the literal signification has not altogether been lost in the
spiritual and metaphorical use of it, as a term expressive of religious experience, is quite
plain from many of the cases in which it occurs. Let me just repeat one of them to you.
'Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful to me, for my soul trusteth in Thee; yea, in the
shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge.' There the picture that is in the words is
distinctly before the Psalmist's mind, and he is thinking not only of the act of mind and
heart by which he casts himself in confidence upon God, but upon that which represents
it in symbol, the act by which a man flees into some hiding-place. The psalm is said in
the superscription to have been written when David hid in a cave from his persecutor.
Though no weight be given to that statement, it suggests the impression made by the
psalm. In imagination we can see the rough sides of the cavern that sheltered him arching
over the fugitive, like the wings of some great bird, and just as he has fled thither with
eager feet and is safely hidden from his pursuers