Psalms 32:8

Psalms 32:8

(1) The first thought that occurs to the mind about this strange and lovely compass is its gentleness. God draws us with a silken cord. (2) The second thought is, how it honours a man, recognises within him intellectual and moral powers which can respond to such silent government. (3) Notice the wonderful variety there must be in such guidance. For the eye has infinite capability of expression, and speaks all languages. (4) And yet it is actually personal. The look of the eye is essentially individual. (5) It is characteristically loving, for the eye is the expression of the heart.

I. How will the guiding come? God has made three great revelations of His will: the Bible; Christ's life; the Holy Ghost's teaching. But in each there is the same underlying principle and central fact. That principle, that fact, is the mind of God. The mind of God shining through these things into a man is God's eye. It emits God to him. Faith is the inner eye of man. It is made to see, and to receive, and to follow truth. The eye of God and the eye of man must meet. Prayer clears the vision. Religious study clears the vision. Contemplation, the very looking into God's eye, clears the vision. More light streams in; and light used makes light again, till it grows so distinct and bright, that the eye of the man is an actual reflector of the mind of God.

II. See now how it works, and with what result. We all know how through the eye the mind of one man can so pass into the mind of another man, that the two minds become one. So it is between God and us. We see as God sees. We judge as God judges. And the more pious we grow, the greater the assimilation and the more intuitive our sense of God's will becomes about everything. In heaven we shall be holy, because we shall see Him face to face; that eye of God which lured us at the beginning, and never left us, has done it all.

J. Vaughan, Sermons, 13th series, p. 37.

References: Psalms 32:8 . C. Kingsley, The Good News of God, p. 137. Psalms 32:8 , Psalms 32:9 . G. Calthrop, Temptation of Christ, p. 177; H. Melvill, Sermons on Less Prominent Facts, vol. ii., p. 233.Psalms 32:9 , Psalms 32:10 . F. D. Maurice, Christmas Day, and Other Sermons, p. 339. Psalms 32:10 . G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 178; A. Watson, Sermons for Sundays, Festivals, and Fasts, 1st series, p. 53.Psalms 32:0 A. Maclaren, Life of David, p. 227; Sermons for Boys and Girls, p. 143.