Psalms 33:11 - Homiletics

Permanence of Divine purpose.

"The counsel … for ever." In this world of change what is there that abides. Can we count on anything as unchangeable;? One generation passeth away, and another cometh. Laws, customs, lances, empires, races, decay and perish. Even "the everlasting mountains" are so only by comparison. "The waters wear the stones." "The mountain falling cometh to nought." The answer which our modern science gives to this question is summed up in the word "evolution;" i.e. unfolding , progress, development. Nothing abides; but all things advance to some higher stage, or decay and are dissipated. Scripture teaches the doctrine of evolution , only with this difference—not development of a blind necessity, evolution of law without a Lawgiver, perpetual motion of a self-acting machine that is always winding itself up; but the carrying out of a Divine plan, the unfolding of the eternal thought and all-comprehending purpose of God ( Psalms 33:6 , Psalms 33:9 , Psalms 33:11 ).

I. GOD ACTS ACCORDING TO SETTLED PLAN , UNCHANGEABLE PURPOSE .

1 . Not according to the sudden exigency of occasion. "Known unto God," etc. ( Acts 15:18 , Authorized Version). Nothing is more incomprehensible, yet nothing more certain, than that God knows the future as perfectly as the present and the past ( Hebrews 4:13 ). Else he neither could have made the world nor could rule it. One great use of Scripture prophecy is to make this plain Isaiah 45:21 ; Isaiah 46:10 ).

2 . Not according to blind necessity. What we call "laws of nature" are the laws which man discovers in nature because God has long ago fixed them there ( Psalms 119:89-91 ). They are unchangeable because he changes not. But to suppose that God's laws interfere with God's will is absurd; it is to make God less powerful than man. Men cannot break or suspend the least law of nature, but men use the laws of nature to carry out their will.

3 . Not according to arbitrary caprice. The will of God, which we are to pray to have done ( Matthew 6:10 ; Matthew 26:39 ), is guided by perfect wisdom, righteousness, and love. Not simply "his will," but "the counsel of his will." ( Ephesians 1:11 ).

II. THIS DIVINE PURPOSE IS UNCHANGEABLE . Change would imply imperfection in the plan or in God himself, want of foresight or instability of purpose ( Malachi 3:6 ). But the manifestation of God's purpose may and must change. The Bible is the history of this manifestation ( Ephesians 3:4 , Ephesians 3:5 ; Colossians 1:26 ). What we do not need, or could not bear, to know, God still hides ( Acts 1:7 ).

III. THIS DIVINE PURPOSE SHALL FINALLY TRIUMPH over all that oppose it. Even men's wickedness is overruled to bring about (against their will) God's purposes ( Acts 2:23 ; Acts 3:18 ; Psalms 76:10 ). To reconcile this all-embracing, persistent, victorious purpose with human freedom and responsibility is beyond our limited power. True wisdom lies in accepting both. But a small part of the great circle of truth is above our horizon.

LESSONS .

1 . This truth is the greatest encouragement to prayer. If all were not foreseen and provided for, prayer would be useless. Prayer avails, not to change God's purposes , but as the appointed condition of the fulfilment of his promises ( 1 John 5:14 , 1 John 5:15 ).

2 . The resting-place of faith ( Daniel 4:35 ; Romans 8:28 ).