Psalms 30:9 - Homiletics

A noble view of life. "Shall the dust praise thee?" etc. We must not take this cry of bitter anguish as an utterance of unbelief or irreligion. On the contrary, it contains a noble and religions view of life. Life, in the psalmist's view, is a scene and season in which to glorify God. His quarrel with death is that it cuts short this opportunity; silences the tongue of testimony and the lips of praise; arrests the busy worker, and buries his vigorous energies in the dust. Here, then, is—

I. THE CHURCH 'S COMPLAINT AGAINST DEATH . There is no piety in ignoring mysteries, though there may be impiety either in our presumptuous attempts to explain them, or more presumptuous denials that there can be an explanation perfectly consistent with God's wisdom, justice, and goodness. We must not rashly try to lilt the veil or rend it; but as we worship before it we feel that it is a veil ( Isaiah 45:15 ). God is a Sovereign, but not a Tyrant. Absolute obedience and trust are his due; but he will not crush either our reason or our conscience ( Jeremiah 12:1 ). Among the imperishable monuments which the Bible has placed over the graves of the good and wise and faithful, are not only those of such as were garnered like the ripe shock; but of others who came forth as a flower, and were cut down; not only Abraham, Israel, David, Daniel; but Abel, Josiah, Stephen, James. Such cases are not rare exceptions, but so frequent in every age of the Church's history as to suggest the thought that there must be some deep, permanent, prevailing reason why so many priceless lives are cut short in their prime, and the Church of Christ and the world made poor by the loss of such vast stores of unspent service.

II. THE ENIGMA OF LIFE . For those who reject the gospel—the insoluble enigma. Close your Bible. Suppose, in the history of our race, no Incarnation, no Atonement, no Resurrection; in our calendar, no Christmas, Good Friday, Easter. Then, what is human life? A vast funeral procession; not in ordered march, with the grey heads always in the van. A confused blind hurry, in which not one of the crowd can tell but the next step may be into darkness and dust. Now the babe is snatched, now the mother. The child in his play, the youth in his pride and hope, the bride with her wreath; the man of ripe power and rich experience, whose fall is like Samson's, bringing down the pillars on which the house rested, What does it mean? There are those who try to borrow the moral force and motive power of Christianity, while rejecting its facts, who are ready with an answer. "Man," they say," is immortal in his work. All that is best of us survives." No more, we reply, than what is worst. "The evil that men do lives after them." Noblest enterprises are rudely made abortive by death. The statesman, reformer, philanthropist (as dying Mirabeau said), cannot "bequeath his head "( Job 14:19 , last clause).

III. THE GOSPEL SUPPLIES THE KEY TO THE ENIGMA , THE REPLY TO THE QUESTION . Yes. The dust shall praise God; the grave does declare his truth.

1 . From the open, empty tomb of Jesus comes the message of comfort, hope, life. Death is abolished ( 2 Timothy 1:10 ; 1 Corinthians 15:20 ).

2 . Every Christian grave praises God, bearing witness to the faith which conquered death and robbed the grave of terror ( Psalms 23:4 ; 2 Corinthians 5:1 , 2 Corinthians 5:6 ); in the recognition and comfort of Christian mourners ( 1 Thessalonians 5:13 ); in the promise of the Lord ( John 6:39 ; Revelation 1:18 ). Patience! "Fear not, only believe." The promise shall be fulfilled. Death shall be destroyed ( John 5:28 , John 5:29 ; Philippians 3:20 , Philippians 3:21 ; 1 Corinthians 15:52 , 1 Corinthians 15:53 , 1 Corinthians 15:55 ).

Meantime, who can doubt that the work which seems to us often so roughly and untimely broken off, is but raised to a higher sphere? They who seem to enter into rest before their time do so because the Lord has made their place ready ( John 14:2 ).