“I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.”
—Psalm 138:1-3.
It is a very grievous thing, to one who worships the only living and true God, to see others engaged in idolatrous worship. It stirs one’s indignation to see a man worship—not his own hands, but what is even worse than that—the thing which he has made with his own hand’s, and which must therefore be inferior to himself. As the righteous soul of Lot in Sodom was vexed with the filthy conversation of the inhabitants of that guilty city, so the righteous soul of David was vexed when he saw the lords many and gods many before whom his neighbors were bowing down; and, in like manner, as long as we are in this world, we shall often be troubled through seeing how others turn aside from the living God, how they forget his truth, set up thoughts of their own in the place of the thoughts of God, and dishonor the Holy Scripture by thinking that their own vain ideas can equal, if not even excel, the revelation of God. David in this matter becomes a guide to us; what he did in the presence of the idols of the heathen is to a great extent what we should do in the presence of the false systems of religion and the errors which are all round about us. You, dear friends, cannot love the right if you do not hate the wrong. I would not give a penny for your love to the truth if it is not accompanied with a hearty hatred of error. I have taken this text as an instruction to myself as well as to you. What David did with all his heart, as a man who loved Jehovah, the only true God, that we also should do if, indeed, we love the Lord Jesus Christ, and all the glorious truths which cluster around his glorious Deity and his atoning sacrifice.
I. How, then, will we act? We will try to act exactly as David did, and if we do so, we shall, first of all, SING WITH WHOLE-HEARTED PRAISE: “I will praise thee with. my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.”
This seems a very singular thing to do; here is a man indignant with these false gods, one would suppose that he would begin to argue on behalf of the true God, that he would raise a controversy on behalf of Jehovah; but he does nothing of the kind. At least, this is not the first thing that he does; but he begins to praise God, and to sing that praise aloud: “I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto ‘thee.”
This was a very singular method of procedure, yet a very wise one; for, first, his song would openly show his contempt for the false gods. What does it matter to him what these idols really are? Men call them gods; so, for the nonce, he calls them gods, too; and he begins to sing, not to them, but to his own God, the only living and true God. He pitches the tune, he lifts up the strain, he sings a psalm., and this is the theme of his music: “Glorious art thou, O Jehovah!” And ho does this in the very presence of the idol gods and their worshippers; as much as to say, “I take so little notice of them all that I will not even be disturbed about them. I was singing the praises of Jehovah, and I shall go on singing them. I was full of holy joy, and I intend still to be so. Those gods of the heathen are nothing, but our God made the heavens; therefore, I will not rob him of his glory, or deprive him of his full revenue of praise, by turning aside even for a single moment to pay any attention to these mere blocks of wood and stone.” It was a wise way of acting on the part of David, and it was also a generous way, because he did not in words pour contempt upon the idols, but he showed his contempt for them by presenting his praise to Jehovah alone.
Let us do the same, beloved. Do not worry yourself about those who turn aside from the truth, and run in their own crooked ways. Warn there as best you can, but remember David’s advice on another occasion: “Fret not thyself because of evildoers.” You have better work to do than to fret about them; begin to praise your God, and go on praising him. Sing as many songs unto him as over you did, and let your heart be just as glad as ever it can be. “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” And if the Lord laughs, let us not cry. If he treats them with such calm contempt, let us do the same, and lift up our voices again and again unto hire whose mercy endureth for ever, and whoso throne is so established. that all the leaguered hosts of earth and hell cannot shake it for a single moment. “Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth.” “The Lord sitteth upon the flood; yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever.” Wherefore, let no man’s heart fail him, but let all who love the Lord show their contempt for his adversaries by pouring out their joyful adoration unto the Most High.
I like David’s plan of dealing with the idols, by continuing his whole-hearted praise to God, because, next, it would evince his strong faith in the true God. I cannot tell any better way by which he could have shown his confidence in Jehovah. He bad already poured contempt upon the false gods, but now his calm, happy singing proves his reverence for the Most High, and makes men see that, if they doubt, he does not; if they rail, he knows how vain their railing is. It proves to them that there is at least one man who has true faith in God, for he stands like a solid rook amid the surging sea. He is not moved; nay, he is not affected enough to postpone his music, but he keeps on still singing, and singing the more loudly, the more the sea roars, and the fullness thereof. The more shrill the noise of the tumultuous idolaters, the more does he proclaim aloud his holy joy and his unshaken confidence in his God. True faith is one of the best of sermons; he who is—
Calm ‘mid the bewildering cry,
Confident of victory,
has, by that trustful calmness, done more to inspire the timid with confidence than if he were the most eloquent of men, who had with great vehemence urged them to trust in God. Thank God, faith, as well as unbelief, is contagious; and if—
One sickly sheep infects the flock,
And poisons all the rest—,
there is another side to that truth. One true believer tends to strengthen all the rest, and to make them “strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” He who can sing as he goes to battle, if he be a leader, is likely to lead a tribe of heroes in his train. He who can sing in the time of shipwreck is likely to put courage into every one of the crew, so that they do their best for the laboring vessel, and, if it be possible, bring her safely into the haven. Sing, then, brother; sing, my sister; for this will prove your childlike confidence in God, your implicit reliance upon him.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
