the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. - Psalms 40:3.
LET us consider the advantages derivable from the satisfaction here enjoyed. Here, first then, our fellow-creatures are to be considered:-“many shall see it.” They will derive benefit from it, and we ought to be concerned for their welfare; we are to do them good by teaching and admonishing, inviting and attracting them to the Saviour. But how much better may we expect to succeed when we can speak from our own experience; when we can go to them and say, “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ;” when we can go to them and say, “Lo, this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good.”
There is another party to be considered, and that is God himself. “Many shall see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.” For his honour we ought to be concerned, and that “whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, we should do all to the glory of God.” A master is never more recommended than when his servants are heard singing at their work: it shows he does not burden them; it shows that they find his service freedom and pleasure. How can God be more glorified by us than by our always being happy in his service? Oh, how it recommends the religion of the Bible when Christians let others see that wisdom’s ways are ways of pleasantness! On the other hand, when persons are always full of complaints, how do they confirm the prejudices of the world, that religion has nothing to do with pleasures!
And Hazael said, What, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? - 2 Kings 8:13.
WELL might the prophet exclaim, “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself.” This fact is confirmed by all history, profane and sacred. Here is a scriptural instance. Elisha the prophet settled his countenance stedfastly on Hazael, until he was ashamed. And Hazael said, “Why weepeth my lord?” And he answered, “Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strongholds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child.” And Hazael said, “But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?” He was then sincere in these feelings, for he was a private individual; but, says Elisha, a change of condition and circumstances will produce a change of character and conduct. “The Lord hath shewed me that thou wilt be King of Syria.” And so he put off humanity, and put on the crown; becoming all that he had execrated, in the comparison, and perpetrated all the atrocities and cruelties which made the man of God mourn.
Thus, how incapable are we of judging of our real character by present circumstances and appearances! how liable to be deluded by present views and feelings! whereas new situations, and new scenes and circumstances, will materially alter our character, and induce a totally different course of action. The reference to the accounts given of the infamous Robespierre, in connection with the horrible atrocities committed during the French Revolution, may serve as a further illustration of the sentiment. This man originally seemed an amiable character: so he was deemed in all his neighbourhood. He was a civilian. He published two books, one on Electricity, the other on the Code of Criminal Jurisprudence, lamenting that it was so sanguinary, and endeavoured to ameliorate it. But the current of the Revolution laid hold of him, and the flood hurried him away, and he became the reverse of all he had appeared before.
Thus we see that man is a fallen creature, and much of the effects of the fall appears in the derangement of the operations of his natural powers. So that it is undeniable that the clearest convictions of his conscience, his decision, his judgment, can be neutralized and counteracted; so that, as the heathen said, “Men see and approve things, and follow worse.”
