Psalms 74:22 - Homiletics

God's cause that of his people.

"Arise …. thine own cause." The great problems of life, and the inner depths of human experience, are the same in all ages. The surface of society changes marvellously; but heart still answers to heart. Asaph's questions and troubles and prayers find their echo in ten thousand Christian hearts today. It would be extremely interesting if we could certainly tell to what crisis of Israel's history this noble psalm refers. Some say the Chaldean invasion; others, the Maecabean tyranny. Very strong reasons are given in the 'Speaker's Commentary' for believing that it refers to the Egyptian invasion in the reign of Rehobeam ( 2 Chronicles 12:1-16 ). As that was the first time when the kingdom of David fell under the power of a heathen conqueror, so the trial to the faith of God's people was correspondingly severe. It seemed as though God had forgotten his covenant, and Church and state (to use our modern phrase) were to Perish in common ruin. The spiritual lesson is not affected by any uncertainty as to the historic reference. The psalmist takes refuge in God. His plea is that it is God's own cause which is at stake. In effect, it is the same which Moses urged ( Exodus 32:11 , ff.; Numbers 14:13 , ff.); and Joshua, "What wilt thou do unto thy great Name?" ( Joshua 7:9 ). "Arise," etc.

I. THE CAUSE OF GOD 'S CHURCH IS GOD 'S OWN CAUSE . The word so rendered means "strife," "controversy" (comp. Hosea 4:1 ; Hosea 12:2 ; Micah 6:2 ; Jeremiah 25:31 ). The Lord's cause, then, is that ancient controversy which began when sin entered the world; and will never cease till sin is conquered, and death, the last enemy, destroyed, and all things placed Under the feet of Christ. The strife between truth and lies, holiness and sin, right and wrong, between "the things that make for peace" and the things about which men cry, "Peace! peace!" but God says, "There is no Peace to the wicked." One of the moral dangers of our time is a feeble sense of the reality, greatness, infinite issues, of the conflict. Society is awake, sensitive, as never before, to human suffering and misery; but no corresponding sense of man's sin and guilt. Criminals are often more pitied for their punishment than condemned for their wickedness. We can understand (or think we can) our Saviour's tears over the approaching calamities of Jerusalem; but, perhaps, fail to see that the deepest source of his grief was the unbelief and the sin of which those impending calamities would be the outcome ( Luke 19:42 ; Matthew 23:37 ). We see how dreadful it is for savages to run about naked and eat one another, to be enslaved or massacred. But do we see how far more terrible it is for them to be without God in the world, without Christ, without hope? We do not want to be less humane, soft-hearted, sympathetic; but we do want to measure by a juster standard, to see that God ' s cause is the supreme interest of human history, that there is nothing we can pray for, work for, live for, to be compared with this—that his Name be hallowed, his kingdom triumph, his will be done. We can see that this is God's own cause; but how is it the cause of his people, of Israel in ancient days, of the Church of Christ in our own? Just because this is the very end for the sake of which the Church exists, for the sake of which the nation of Israel was called into being. Christians are in danger of just the mistake into which the Jews fell. They thought they were the chosen, favoured people of Jehovah, to the exclusion of all other nations, and that they might despise and hate the Gentiles. Whereas the truth was, it was for the sake of all mankind that they were chosen—to be God's witnesses, that all nations might be blessed in their promised King and Saviour. So Christians are not saved simply for their own sake, but to be the "salt of the earth" and "light of the world; firstfruits" ( James 1:18 ).

II. Therefore, secondly, THE CAUSE OF GOD IS THE CAUSE OF MANKIND . Attempts have been made to set in opposition "the service of God" and "the service of man." In actual fact, none have rendered such service to men as those devoted to the service of God. No power but the gospel of Jesus Christ can take a horde of naked cannibals and, in a single generation, change them into peaceful, intelligent, useful members of the great community of nations—many of them willing martyrs for truth and charity. The moral ideas of universal justice, personal liberty, human brotherhood, the value of each human being, the duty of the rich to the poor, which have abolished slavery and serfdom, and are working so mightily towards the regeneration of society, find room only in Christianized nations, and have their fountain in the gospel. But the gospel aims at something very different from regenerating society with ideas, however true and Divine. It aims to bring each human being, as a lost wanderer, home to God. Alone among systems, the gospel goes to the heart and root of all man's wretchedness and degradation— sin . The estrangement of the individual heart and life from God, and disobedience to his law of love. If you want an unanswerable proof that the gospel is God's word, not man's, you may find one (among innumerable others) in the view given of sin and God's dealing with it. Take just four passages:

III. THE SUCCESS OF GOD 'S CAUSE DEPENDS ON GOD HIMSELF PLEADING IT . Asa's plea ( 2 Chronicles 14:11 ). We may be in danger of forgetting this. If we see full subscription lists, large congregations, plenty of new societies, we think God's work is surely prospering. If the reverse, we are downcast, perhaps almost despairing. One way in which God wonderfully holds the work in his own hand is in the raising up of workers. What would the religious history of mankind have been without Abraham, Moses, St. Paul? Such men as John Wesley, J. F. Oberlin, Felix Neff, Robert Moffat, are not results of any law of evolution and human progress. Each is unique—a gift from God. God only is the Judge, in what way best to plead his own cause. Sometimes by letting men take their own blind, proud way, and eat the fruit of their doings. Spain has never recovered the withering blight brought on her by the Inquisition, which trampled out her noblest life. Nor France the massacre of the Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

IV. Therefore we are WARRANTED , ENCOURAGED , CONSTRAINED , TO OFFER THIS PRAYER . "Arise," etc. Beware of playing as though we were more zealous for God's cause than God himself, more earnest for his glory, more compassionate towards perishing men. Yet we are not to treat prayer as a mere form. Sometimes it seems inscrutable, almost incredible, that our poor, weak prayers can be of any account in the world's history—the fulfilment of God's promises. But God knows best. He has made prayer one of the great laws of his spiritual universe. Ours not to question, but obey. What infinite comfort to turn from our own failures, the world's unbelief and misery, and the mysteries of providence to God's plain word. of promise and command ( Matthew 6:9 )!