Gleanings in the Psalms

Verse 11. "The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity." What a humbling thought is here suggested to us: - If vanity had been ascribed to the meaner parts of creation – the inanimate and irrational beings – the thought would probably have only accorded with our own views. But the humiliating truth belongs to man, the lord of the lower creation; to man, that distinguished part of creation who unites in his person morality and immortality – heaven and earth. "The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity." Then, had vanity been ascribed only to the exercise of our sensual or mortal part, it had been less humiliating. But the charge is pointed to that which is the peculiar glory of man – the intellectual part: his thoughts. It is here, if anywhere, that we excel the creatures that are round about us. We can contemplate our own existence, dive into the past and future, and understand whence we came and whither we go. Yet, in this tender part we are touched. Even the thoughts of man are vanity.

The decision given in this passage is the judgment of Him who cannot err; the decision proceeds from a quarter from which there can be no appeal; "The Lord knoweth."

Verse 12. "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law." If we have nothing but the rod, we profit not by the rod; but if we have nothing but the word, we shall never profit by the word. It is the Spirit given with the word, and the Spirit given with the rod, by which we profit under both or either. Chastening and divine teaching go together, else there will be no profit by chastening.

Verse 13. "That thou mayest give him rest ...". As rowers in a boat turn their backs to the shore, and trust to the man at the helm, so should we proceed in duty through life – turn our backs from our anxious cares for the future, and leave the guidance of them all to God who guides the helm. Do thy part with industry and leave the event with God. I have seen matters fall out so unexpectedly that they have taught me in all affairs neither to despair nor to presume not to despair, for God can help me; not to presume, for God can cross me. I will never despair, because I have a God; I will never presume, because I am but a man.

Verse 14. "For the Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance." He may cast them down, but he can never cast them off:-

Verse 19. "In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul." When a swarm of bees dislodge themselves, they are all in confusion, flying here and there without any order till at last they are hived again. Then the uproar is at an end, and they fall to work peaceably as before. So the Christian will find it with his own heart: God in the promise is the soul's hive; let the Christian dislodge his thoughts from there, and presently they run riot and fly up and down as in a fright, until he can recollect himself and settle his heart again upon the promise. Then he recovers his former peace.

Verse 19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul."

Consider this malignant host:-

Consider the other army:-

(1) There are comforts.
(2) There are abundant comforts.
(3) They are "thy comforts.
(4) They "delight" the soul.

So – in the nature of them, being comforts, there is tranquility; in the number of them, being many comforts, there is sufficiency; in the owner of them, being Thy comforts, there is omnipotency; and in the effect of them, delighting the soul, there is security.

Verse 23. "And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity ...". This is a sober warning: it is an ill work that wicked ones are about. They make fetters for their own feet, and build houses to fall upon their own heads. Sin damns and destroys the parents of it.