to direct his steps."* "The way of peace he has not known." This at least might lead to an inquiry as to what the Scriptures have to say. The first book of our division is found to begin at the beginning. Is there anything in this world which can meet and satisfy the needs of the heart and conscience of man? This question is answered by that book which speaks of “all under the sun."
No Satisfaction Under the Son in Ecclesiastes.
“The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing," is the testimony of the world today.. One thing certain is that the world with all the progress and enlightenment of the day has not on the list of its innumerable inventions one " new thing " that can meet the need of man,—not the needs without but that within, at the root. So the testimony in the book that deals with man's deep dissatisfaction. Each subject raises a new discovery and proves it true that the character of the works of man cannot change; "that which is has been already." This world is to be its own evidence that God must " work a work " for the soul Of man, for the heart and conscience. He must do the new work; a divine work and a divine path alone can bring man to satisfaction for heart and soul. But is there such a path?
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Wisdom and the Beginning of It in Proverbs
So too in the hook that deals with the principles of wisdom for this world. The world can appreciate the wisdom that is spoken of, as far as its truth is proved in its (the world's) course. But the Scriptures insist on a " beginning " that the world does not. The beginning is the fear of the Lord. Wisdom itself is spoken of in terms so plainly applicable only to the divine Person and grace of Him who is referred to in the New Testament as the Wisdom of God, that the dullest conscience might well he awakened by reading, Prov. 8:22-3122The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. 23I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. 24When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. 25Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: 26While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. 27When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: 28When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: 29When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: 30Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; 31Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. (Proverbs 8:22‑31).
The Heart and Conscience Having to Do With God in the Psalm.
But the subject would not be complete, if we had not the experience of some, in' whom at least was “the fear of the Lord," that we might be taught what portion they did find for their hearts in Him Whom. they trusted. And this is precisely
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divine if there were. It is in and through his need that man first begins to be real with God. In his ease he may turn to his divinity lectures, in his need he has to turn to God. In his fullness he may be pleased with what the world has to give him without God; but in his want he must seek Him.
One thing is certain, that the utterances which are given expression to in the Psalms carry with them the power of reality-not of theory. The Psalmist could say, " I sought the Lord and He heard me." And they range from the simplest and most natural utterances of what comes to God from the heart of man pressed by trial, to the deepest, most precious revelation of what the heart of Him Who was David's Lord felt and suffered and knew in the sorrows and beneath the burdens that this world placed upon it,
But to object to expressions of those who turned to God in the real needs of their hearts, and under the actual pressure of circumstances around, to make known to Him their wants, on the ground that these expressions reveal a lower standard of morality than that of the present day, only proves once again that man desires not a living God, as the Psalmist did, but theology. The psalmists certainly spoke to God and looked to Him concerning that which, touched their hearts and consciences.
But the Scriptures, which ever give the whole truth both of God and of man, put before us in this book, which gives the experiences of hearts and consciences having to do with God, the beginning as well as the end. The spirit of the judicial, and so-called imprecatory Psalms certainly is not that of the Gospel. The Scriptures have stated the difference But in using them as an objection to the Scriptures being a revelation from God because of the presence of a legal or judicial spirit in them, the Rationalist only betrays himself into showing he does not know that his heart has all to learn from the beginning. And the beginning must be when he, as he is at heart, begins to have to do with God, for it is God who Must teach him. For what does he mean to say is wrong in expressions found in the Psalms,—the having to do with God about that which touched the psalmist's heart, or the standard of the heart's desires? Presumably the latter. But it is stated in the Psalms themselves, " In Thy light we shall see light " and " For thou halt taught me." It is not by being unreal—honoring God with the lips while the heart is far from Him—that through having to do with God men will get taught. In having to do with Him they must first be real. Those who have feared the Lord are taught. No fairer or more perfect illustration could be given us than “the Psalmist of Israel " himself, whose name is so inseparably connected with the Book. Pressed by his enemies, he had pleaded with God to scatter them. Exposed to the wiles of treacherous friends, he had trusted God to confound their schemes, and judge them, and even with integrity of heart he had pleaded his own righteousness. And in his so doing there was reality, but his experience did not end there. He found himself a sinner, and with the guilt of a sin for which he had no remedy under the law, nor could his royal treasury provide any sacrifice sufficient to atone for it. But if all else failed him in this the hour of his greatest need, he had learned to know God. He knew Him to be One he could trust at all times, One before whom he could pour out his heart, One who was a refuge for him, Psa. 60:118. If the lukewarm moralist of the present day cavils at the moral standard of the psalmist's heart, let it be remembered that, by having been real with God at this time when the ruin of his heart and nature had become manifest, he came to know his in to be sin in a depth of meaning and holiness of which the moralist knows nothing. If it be said that David began morally behind the present age, he certainly ends, infinitely ahead of it in judging sin as sin against God., in his confession, his statement of' his sin as a dishonor to God is surpassed nowhere in its absoluteness. “Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned." Who has ever been taught that this is the character of sin, without having had to do with God in truth? By his own standard the moralist is found to be neither cold nor hot, but to be that which is spued out of Christ's mouth. David knew Whom to turn to in his need. " 'Wash me," he says, " and I shall be whiter than snow," and his heart found its joy in knowing that, as transgressors had found grace on His sight, so transgressors might be taught God's ways. He proves by what is uttered that God had taught his heart and conscience, who had had to do with Him.
Ruin of All Save Confidence in God
Could accord be more perfect than that which is found here with the divine truths of the Gospel? The Psalmist of Israel has himself given expression to his inmost soul. In having to do with God in reality as to that which touched his heart and conscience, he finds in the end that not only others but he himself is both “disgusting," and guilty before God. But he has also learned to know God and that He only can meet his needs, and that in doing so He will have a gospel for the sinner. The `message in the Gospel declares that this, is divine truth, proved by the facts of 'the Gospel. Now that the work of the Cross has been finished and accepted, there can of course be no unfinished redemption. There is eternal redemption for man, or nothing. That truly which the Psalmist had to learn by experience the believer can know by faith. He, through having to do with God as to needs that were real to his heart and conscience, found for himself that his need and his faith in God could be answered in 'Grid's gift of Christ alone. The believer, by the same way only, will find himself taught of God to know Him-and the worth of all that He has accomplished.