Psalms 78:29 - Homiletics

The heart's desire gratified.

"He gave them their own desire." Three days' march from Sinai, at the first halting place, where the tabernacle was first pitched after quitting the plain at the foot of that holy mountain, the wandering Arabs of the desert might gaze on the saddest, most shameful waymarks of Israel's pilgrimage towards the Land of Promise. A row of dreary mounds marked where thousands of plague-stricken corpses had been hastily buried by the terrified survivors. As the silver trumpets again sounded, and the mourning host, with thinned ranks, marched away from the ghastly spot, they named it "Kibroth-hattaavah"—"Graves of lust." Many centuries afterwards the Holy Spirit in this psalm wrote this epitaph.

I. THE HISTORY is told in Numbers 11:1-35 ; with that terseness and graphic power which belong to Bible narratives. The grand characteristic of those narratives, however, is not their style, but this—they let us see behind the scenes; they withdraw the veil and show us God's guiding and controlling hand—in miracle, when miracles are needed, not otherwise; but no less in the ordinary course of nature and human affairs. Thus we are taught that when we cannot see behind the scenes, within the veil, the same hand is always there. This terrible episode in Israel's history is one of the most signal illustrations of that profound mystery—the thwarting of God's gracious designs by man's sin and unbelief. "Design"—not that absolute purpose which must stand, let who will gainsay, but, as in nature and providence, so in the spiritual realm, the lines along which God works; the manifest fitness of things; the blessed and useful results which would certainly come about if men were trustfully obedient. In this sense, the design with which God led Israel forth out of Egypt is clear as day ( Isaiah 43:21 ). To form a nation, giving them the two main elements of civilization—order and ideas: wise, righteous order; true, noble, fruitful ideas. And this, that they might be—as they have been, spite of all their sin and failure—the religious leaders and teachers of mankind. They were a rough material—with little, perhaps, beyond the patriarchal government of their chiefs of tribes and families, and the strict discipline to which their labour in Egypt inured them, to raise them above the "mixed multitude" of fugitives who joined them in their escape from bondage. Severe training was indispensable to mould them first into an army of hardy warriors, then into a nation of industrious, God-fearing, law-abiding free men. But had they bent to the hand that led them, listened to the voice that spoke to them, it would have been a gracious discipline. Their first lesson was the foundation truth of religion—absolute dependence on the power and providence of the Almighty Creator, "not far from every one of us" ( Numbers 11:14 16, 23, 24). Then, at the foot of Mount Sinai, even the dullest, most unbelieving, ungodly heart was constrained to feel the actual presence of the living God; and national as well as personal life definitely hung on these two principles—obedience to God's Law, and faith in God's promise. Stained and maimed as is the history of God's ancient people, through their incurable, insensate unbelief and rebellion, so faithfully confessed in their own Scriptures, it is yet the source, remote but real, of our own religious life today; supplies our most touching and stirring pictures and parables of the Christian's life journey to the better land. What would it have been could they have risen to the height of God's purpose, and, like Caleb, "followed the Lord wholly"? Three conclusions seem so plain that I do not well know how any candid mind can avoid them.

1 . That such a history—so unlike anything else—would never have been invented had it not been real.

2 . That Hebrew writers would never have penned such a history of national apostasy, folly, and sin (of which this psalm is an epitome and specimen), unless divinely inspired.

3 . The fact that what the Bible records as God's promises have been fulfilled after the lapse of ages, spite of the unbelief and opposition of those to whom they were given, cannot rationally be accounted for except by the fact that they are in truth God's word, which cannot be broken ( Numbers 23:19 ).

II. SOME SPECIAL LESSONS FROM THIS PAGE OF ISRAEL 'S HISTORY .

1 . God is able to give you your " own desire. " Some hidden wish, perhaps, so bold, or selfish, or wrong, or out of all ordinary range of likelihood, you dare not breathe in human ear. Yet if God spoke to you as to Solomon ( 2 Chronicles 1:7 ), that is what would leap to your lips. If God does not grant it, it will not be because he cannot. No need of miracle. "With God all things are possible." Beware, therefore, how you pray!

2 . God may ( and sometimes does ) grant our heart ' s desire, not approving, but in displeasure and punishment: happy for us if it be only for chastisement; not (as in the case of Israel) for destruction ( Psalms 106:15 ). Not arbitrarily. The body cannot be gorged, unbridled lust satiated, and at the same time the soul fed, the spiritual life nourished. Examples: love of wealth; amusement; success; ease. God and idols cannot both dwell in the soul's sanctuary. Sin brings its own penalty.

3 . Therefore God may refuse and withhold our heart ' s desire, not in anger, but in mercy and wisdom. The father will not give the stone, serpent, scorpion ( Luke 11:11 , Luke 11:12 ), even if the child asks for it.

4 . The heart ' s desire is the test of character. What a man loves both shows what he is and moulds him. "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he" ( Hebrews 4:12 ). The sinful desire, Christ teaches, is sin ( Psalms 19:12 ; 1 John 1:8 , 1 John 1:9 ).

5 . There are desires which we may be sure God will satisfy: the earnest of their own fulfilment ( Psalms 145:19 ; Isaiah 26:8 ).