1.
Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2.
I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
3.
Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4.
We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
5.
For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:
6.
That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:
7.
That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:
8.
And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
9.
The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
10.
They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;
11.
And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.
12.
Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13.
He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.
14.
In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
15.
He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
16.
He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
17.
And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.
18.
And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.
19.
Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
‘LIMITING THE HOLY ONE’
‘They said, Can God?’
Psalms 78:19
Can a man limit God? At first sight it seems impossible, and yet it is done by multitudes every hour of every day. Even Jesus Christ was limited as to His miraculous power by the unbelief of the Nazarenes. To doubt God is to limit Him, and to make Him look smaller than He actually is. Why the Infinite should permit the finite to contract His dimensions and operations is a great mystery.
I. Men too often limit the majesty of God.—He is the King of all kings, and all earthly kings are His vassals, but men are bold enough to rob His crown of its gems and His breastplate of its splendours. There is only room for one God in this universe, and yet men are multiplying gods on every side. In their endeavours to define God they make Him appear less than He actually is. The term ‘Nature’ takes the place of the term ‘God’; the term ‘laws of Nature’ takes the place of the term ‘Divine attributes’; and the term ‘Course of the world’ takes the place of the term ‘Divine Providence.’
II. Men too often limit the power of God.—They cynically ask, ‘Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?’ They limit His omnipotence and thus provoke Him to anger. They had heard of the marvels of His power in Egypt and by the Red Sea; they had heard of Him who had spoken to their leader in the bush burning with fire; they beheld His pillar of fire by night, and yet they had the audacity to doubt His ability to lay a simple table in the wilderness! In a fit of arrant blasphemy they tried to circumscribe His infinite powers, and the people of Nazareth treated Christ in the same way, for their unbelief practically limited His power for a time. ‘The word preached did not profit because it was not mixed with faith in them that heard it.’
III. Men too often limit the Holy Will of God.—This will is the fundamental law of the universe, and yet many men dictate to God as if He were only an equal. Instead of our will being ours to make it God’s, we make God’s will His to make it ours. We murmur against Him day and night, and show Him what He is to do, and how, and when! It is rank arrogance to say to the Almighty, ‘Thus far shalt Thou go and no further.’ We have no right to prescribe God’s pathway in providence and to set up our feeble will as standards for Him. ‘Thy will—not ours—be done.’
IV. Men too often limit the wisdom of God.—In a sense they ‘chalk out’ the path for Him, and they say in effect, ‘This is the way, walk thou in it.’ What lessons we are ready to teach the All-wise in the management of the universe! God works at opposite poles from man, and in due time Joseph is installed as Prime Minister of Egypt. Let us not insult the Divine omniscience by doubting God’s wisdom.
V. Men too often limit the love of God.—Love is the grandest thing in God, and yet some men seek to rob it of its glory. They are doing their best to reduce the Divine ocean into a tiny lakelet and to keep it under their own control.
But we make His love too narrow
By false limits of our own,
And we magnify His strictness
With a zeal He will not own.
In the words of another, ‘Holiness is central in God, but love is central in holiness.’ His holiness always includes love, and His love always expresses holiness. Never let us exalt one attribute at the expense of the other.
Illustration
‘This ancient and Israelitish unbelief finds continual modern and Gentile illustration. We are ever limiting the Holy One Whom we profess to serve. Amid our wilderness of emergency, temptation, trial, our faithless hearts are asking the same question, “Who is the Lord that we should serve Him?” How can He deliver us? God stands there, over against each one of us, with an infinity of blessing in His hands—of deliverance, of present and abiding peace, of the promise of the land beyond; but unbelief is a staggering and blear-eyed creature, who often cannot see what God proffers, and even when she does, reaches forth such palsied hands they cannot reach and hold the blessing.’
20.
Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?
21.
Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;
22.
Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:
23.
Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,
24.
And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
25.
Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.
26.
He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.
27.
He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:
28.
And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.
29.
So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;
30.
They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,
31.
The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
32.
For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.
33.
Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.
34.
When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and inquired early after God.
35.
And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.
36.
Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.
37.
For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.
38.
But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
39.
For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
40.
How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
41.
Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
42.
They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.
43.
How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:
44.
And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.
45.
He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
46.
He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.
47.
He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.
48.
He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
49.
He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
50.
He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
51.
And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:
52.
But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53.
And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54.
And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
55.
He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
56.
Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:
57.
But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
58.
For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
59.
When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
60.
So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;
61.
And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand.
62.
He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.
63.
The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.
64.
Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.
65.
Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
66.
And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.
67.
Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
68.
But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.
69.
And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.
70.
He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:
71.
From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
72.
So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.