Psalms 18:35 - Homiletics

Our exaltation through God's gentleness.

"Thy gentleness hath made me great." "Gentleness!" A most remarkable and wonderful word to apply to the Almighty Creator, the infinite God! Nowhere else do we find it thus applied. As applied to men, the Hebrew word so rendered here means "meekness," "lowliness." We are reminded of our Saviour's words, "Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart." "Gentleness" is a very happy and beautiful translation. "Condescension," which the Revisers give in the margin, would not be nearly so apt. It reminds us of Psalms 113:6 . But there the leading thought is the glory and condescension of God; here, our exaltation through his gracious gentleness.

I. THE GENTLENESS OF GOD 'S PROVIDENCE IS THE SAFEGUARD OF ALL OUR WELFARE , the condition of all human greatness and prosperity. Human life is like a flower, that can thrive only if fenced from storms and frosts. We are in a world filled with forces which, if they broke loose, would be our destruction. There is power sleeping in the winds and waves to wreck or drown all our navies; in earthquakes, to overthrow all our cities; in blight and insect ravages, to destroy our harvests. Even the light snowflakes, if they fell for a fortnight twenty feet deep all over our land, would turn it into a desert of the dead. On the other hand, how gently those immense forces work which minister to life! How smoothly earth flies in her yearly circle! No eye, or ear, or sense of ours can make the vapour rising from the ocean to fill the springs and water the plains; the secret ministry of the world of plants to the life of the animal world—pouring forth from numberless millions of millions of invisible mouths vital air, and removing what otherwise would soon poison and stifle us; or the pulse of growth in bud and blade, leaf, flower, and fruit, in spring and summer, as the returning tide of life answers to the gentle sunshine. "He causeth the grass to grow," etc. ( Psalms 104:14 , Psalms 104:24 , Psalms 104:27 ; 2 Corinthians 9:10 ). How gently the great machine works! How gently the sunbeam touches the eye, after its flight of over ninety millions of miles in eight minutes! How gently the force of gravity, that holds suns and worlds in their places, draws the child's foot to the ground and poises the gnat in the air! True, nature has a stern side, by fixing our thoughts on which a gloomy view may be made out. But take in the whole scope of natural law and Divine providence. For one city overthrown by earthquake, how many have stood safe for ages! For one shipwreck, how many prosperous voyages! For a season of local scarcity, how many plenteous harvests! For one home in mourning, how many bright with health and love!—how many happy years, perhaps, in that very home! In a word, our Saviour sums up all we can say of the gracious gentleness of our Father's providence ( Luke 12:6 , Luke 12:7 ; Matthew 6:26-30 ).

II. THE GENTLENESS OF GOD 'S REVELATION OF HIMSELF IN HIS WORD IS OUR HIGHEST WISDOM . The Bible is a wonderfully different book from anything the wisest of men could have imagined as a revelation of God. Philosophers and men of genius, had they been consulted, would have agreed that it must be a book for the select few, not the multitude. The notion of teaching peasants, slaves, children, the deep things of God, would have seemed to them folly. But "the foolishness of God is wiser than men." He has given us a book for the cottage, the schoolroom, the sick-chamber, as well as for the college, the palace, the cathedral. A compilation of short books that look as though collected by chance, yet with wondrous living unity. Depth is concealed by clearness; sublimity by simplicity. Its deepest, highest lessons are given in words a child may understand. No words are too homely, no similitudes too humble, if only they can point the arrow of truth, or wing it home to the heart. We read of God's eye, ear, hand, face; his throne, footstool, sword; of his remembering, forgetting, being angry, grieved, repeating, being well-pleased (look at Amos 2:13 ; Malachi 1:6 ; Isaiah 1:3 , Isaiah 1:14 , Isaiah 1:18 ; Isaiah 49:15 , Isaiah 49:16 ; Revelation 7:17 ). A long unlovely name has been invented. by learned men to express this setting forth of Divine things in human language, "anthropomorphism." It is used as though a reproach, indicating the ignorance and narrowness of the sacred writers. Suppose the Bible had been a book to please philo-sophia critics, what would have been its value to mankind? Suppose our heavenly Father had disdained to speak to us in our own language, how should we have learned that we are his children? The aim of his Word, his message to men, is not to make us philosophers, but to bring us sinners home to God. That teaching which best secures this end is worthiest of God.

III. THE GENTLENESS OF GOD IS THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF OUR PRAYERS . It would seem reasonable for God to say to us, "Prayer is needless; I know all your wants and desires. Presumptuous; I am the Judge, not you, of what is best. Useless; you cannot change my all-wise purposes." Then we should have been deprived of the main comfort of life; our sheet-anchor in trouble; our closest, happiest, highest fellowship with our Maker and Father. Look at Abraham interceding for the guilty cities; Moses interceding for apostate Israel; Jonah crying from the sea-depths; Peter praying by the corpse of Dorcas; Paul over that of Eutychus. Read the promises to prayer. Consult the experience of all Christians in all ages. In prayer, our weakness takes hold on God's strength. His gentleness makes us great.

IV. Lastly, GOD 'S GENTLENESS IS SEEN IN HIS MERCY TOWARDS SINNERS . The Bible, like Nature, has a severe side; a severity solely aimed against that which is man's deadliest enemy—sin. It is possible so to read it that terror and judgment seem to overshadow mercy and love. This is to misread it utterly. It is to forget that the terrible judgments it records—such as the Deluge, the destruction of Sodom, the plagues of Egypt, the destruction of the sinful nations, the overthrow of Jerusalem, of Babylon—stand as sure warnings, indispensably necessary, in the long thousands of years during which God has made the sun to shine and his rain to fall on the evil and unthankful, "not willing that any should perish" ( Matthew 5:45 ; 2 Peter 3:9 ). Above all, the crowning revelation of God to man, for which the whole Old Testament law and history were the preparation, is "the meekness and gentleness of Christ." He is "the Brightness of the Father's glory, the express Image of his Person." All power is his. That brightness might have blinded us; that power crushed us. But "though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich." His gentleness makes us great. He stoops to lift us to God. Jesus , the Man of sorrows, the Friend of sinners, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, weeping by the grave, bidding the weary come to him for rest, taking the children in his arms, washing his disciples' feet, led as a lamb to the slaughter, praying for his murderers, bearing our sins in his own body on the tree, asks us, as he asked his apostles, "Have ye understood all these things?" And if our hearts can answer, "Yea, Lord," he replies, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."