Bible Commentaries

Job 19:28 — THE ROOT OF THE MATTER ‘But ye should say, Why persecute we him? seeing the root of the matter is found in me.’ Job 19:28 ‘The root of the matter’ is (as we learn from the context) ‘Faith in a living Redeemer.’ That is the root of true religion. I. It is the beginning of religion.—In such a world as ours all true religion begins in the faith of God’s love to us—‘the

Job 7:9 — languid, fainting as the body may be, the soul can exclaim, ‘O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’ Illustration ‘In this lamentation there are two movements—first, a great complaint concerning the stress and misery of life ( Job 7:1-10), and secondly, a complaint directed against God ( Job 7:11-21). The toil of life is strenuous indeed. It is a warfare. A man is a hireling, a servant, whose labour issues in nothing, and whose rest is disturbed with tossing. Nothing is satisfying,

Psalms 100:5 — DIVINE GOODNESS AND TRUTH ‘For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.’ Psalms 100:5 I. There are some passages of the Word which admit of no explanation.—They are so simple, that they at once find their way to the understanding; yet so full of meaning, that they draw forth our deepest emotions. The words before us belong to this

Psalms 103:5 — LIFE’S PERPETUAL RENEWAL ‘Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.’ Psalms 103:5 How may we recover in manhood, but in a wiser way, what was noble in our youth—recover our manifold interests, our poetic feeling towards the history of man and nature, our ideal of the goodness, truth, and love of man? I. The restoration of manifold

Psalms 144:1 — ‘IF GOD BE FOR ME, WHO CAN BE AGAINST ME?’ ‘Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.’ Psalms 144:1 I am far from thinking that this sentence applies exclusively to what we designate spiritual conflicts. I should suppose whoever the writer of the Psalm was, gave thanks that he had been able to fight with the Philistines and the Ammonites. No one

Psalms 15:5 — THE GODLY MAN ‘Whoso doeth these things: shall never fall.’ Psalms 15:5 (Prayer Book Version) Through the whole of the Jewish polity and of Old Testament history God is spoken of as bringing His people into a true and right state—a state of fellowship with Himself. It was no contradiction to say of any men whomsoever

Psalms 60:12 — ‘GOD IS OUR REFUGE AND OUR STRENGTH’ ‘Through God we shall do valiantly.’ Psalms 60:12 This is a national psalm to be taught to the people ( Deuteronomy 31:19). As 44 was sung by the sons of Korah when the Edomites were taking advantage of David’s absence to invade the land, so this psalm was composed after victory had been assured.

Proverbs 21:1 — DOMINUS DIRIGIT COR ‘The King’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever He will.’ Proverbs 21:1 The analogy which Solomon saw between the king’s heart and a river of water is true and fertile. I. Although a king is specified in the parable, the likeness holds good for mankind.—In respect to the secret impulses which impart direction and force

Isaiah 4:2 — Israel.’ Isaiah 4:2 The symbolism of the text is double. He who is the ‘branch of the Lord’ is also the ‘fruit of the earth.’ A comparison with the other passages in which precisely the same word occurs ( Jeremiah 23:5; Zechariah 3:8; Zechariah 6:12) will make it clear that this phrase means the King Messiah. He was the ‘Branch of the Lord.’ The words for ‘glory’ and for ‘beauty’ are used to describe the priestly robes ( Exodus 28:2-40). ‘The Branch of the Lord’ was thus to possess the holiness

Isaiah 40:31 — THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL YOUTH ‘They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.’ Isaiah 40:31 I. Consider, first, what it is to wait upon the Lord.—Three things make it: service, expectation, patience. ‘Wait on the Lord.’ We must be as those Eastern maidens who, as they ply their needle or their distaff, look to the eye and wait upon the hand

Jeremiah 3:17 — THE SACRED METROPOLIS ‘They shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it.’ Jeremiah 3:17 Jerusalem is now to be in relation to the nations. I. All Jerusalem is now to be the throne of the Lord.—The prophet’s glance penetrates to the remotest distance, without distinguishing the progressive stages into which the final period itself is

Micah 5:2 — things created, which are in heaven and on earth. Stars and glow-worms, cherubim and grasshoppers, mountains and molecules of dust. And though He was crucified in weakness, He now lives to communicate to each of us power unto salvation. Illustrations (1) ‘Bethlehem might be little, but so is earth among the thousands of the stars, and littleness in size is nothing to God, to Whom all is great, where He deigns to work. The Lord Jesus came forth from Bethlehem, but His goings forth had been from everlasting.

Malachi 4:5-6 — His forerunner, who should give them a last warning to prepare themselves by interior holiness for the benefits of His Advent. Every year are these warnings read in our ears. These Advent calls to repentance are Christ messages to us. Illustrations (1) ‘Just as Elijah, in the degenerate days of Ahab, when Baal was predominant, and the worshippers of Jehovah shrunk out of sight, rallied to his side those who were faithful in secret, and recreated, one might say, the people of God, so should this promised

Matthew 12:14-20 — THE GENTLENESS OF CHRIST ‘Then the Pharisees went out … till He send forth judgment unto victory.’ Matthew 12:14-20 There are numbers of people who want far less words of reproof than words of sympathy and tenderness. What shall we learn from such a text as this? I. Where there is life there is hope.—First, it implies that wherever there is so much as a

Matthew 12:32 — THE UNPARDONABLE SIN ‘Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.’ Matthew 12:32 In God’s view, words are always treated as the index of the heart. Thus they will be the chief evidences in the day of judgment. The ‘speaking,’ or ‘blaspheming against the Holy Ghost,’ is therefore the sign of a very rancorous and very violent

Matthew 25:40 — us—many do to turn these prisoners of despondency, perhaps of despair, into ‘Prisoners of Hope,’ pointing their drooping hearts to ‘the stronghold’ on which they have long ago turned their backs. Christ in these! —Bishop Alfred Pearson. Illustrations (1) ‘A passage from The Heart of Midlothian has a distinct bearing on this passage in Matthew: “Alas! it is not when we sleep soft and wake merrily ourselves that we think on other peoples’ sufferings. Our hearts are waxed light within us then, and we

Matthew 28:6 — the place where the Lord lay.’ It was a mighty battlefield; the scene of a strife, unparalleled in its intensity. The strife and its issue had been foretold over and over again: ‘He shall swallow up death in victory’ (Is. Matthew 25:8; see also Hosea 13:14). But the battle is fought, and won; and now it is ours to have part in the gathered spoils. For a time, and within limits, death must reign, and the grave also. Still, if we are Christ’s, the grave receives us only as a trust. (See Is. Matthew

Matthew 5:13 — THE CHRISTIAN IN SOCIETY ‘Ye are the salt of the earth.’ Matthew 5:13 Our present topic is the Christian in society. The words of the text were spoken to those whose social surroundings were far less favourable than ours. We may indeed be thankful that for us the world around us is not so vile a world as it was then.

Matthew 8:1 — LAW AND LIFE ‘When He was come down from the mountain great multitudes followed Him.’ Matthew 8:1 The mount from which our Lord descended to work this miracle of healing was the Mount of the Beatitudes. I. The two mounts.—As the scene of that sermon rises before us, in all its sweet attractiveness, we are reminded, by contrast, of another mountain

Matthew 8:16 — THE DIVINE CONSOLER When the even was come … healed all that were sick.’ Matthew 8:16 It is easy to imagine the scene. Our Lord had healed St. Peter’s mother-in-law of a great fever that very day, and now at eventide they carry the sick ones of Capernaum to His feet. He lays now on one, now on another, His pure and gentle hands, and