But like mortals you will die, and like rulers you will fall." Sermons
I. WHAT MEN OUGHT TO BE. There is a true and proper sense in which every man is an official. Every man has some one dependent on him, and every man can exert an influence, and be an influence, on some one. This may be put in another way - Every man is somebedy's ideal. In the text the judges are thought to be what they ought to be - uncorrupt, simple, sincere; agents that convey the pure word and will of God to men. And this is what every one of us who has influence on a fellow man should be. Those dependent on us should have good ground for making us their ideals. Using the word in its Old Testament sense, men should look on us, and in their admiration, say, "Ye are gods." We ought to be such in integrity, simplicity, and nobility, as to make their saying so reasonable. II. WHAT MEN PROVE TO BE. Our ideas of them generally prove illusions, but there is no reason why they should not change for better ideas. They need not change for the worse. But life proves a heavy strain for all men. Some are sanctified through it, but some are deteriorated. The text contemplates those who prove unfaithful, untrustworthy, and even come under the judgments of God, for special sins, as Adam did. Impress that the ideal Christ never yet disappointed any man. There has never been reason for changing our estimate of him. - R.T.
I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High. Homilist. I. THEIR OFFICIAL GREATNESS.1. They are here called gods. "Ye are gods." In what sense are they gods?(1) Not in the sense of mental superiority. There are some men, it is true, so far superior in mind to the average of their kind, that they move about like divinities. But human rulers are seldom found of that lofty type.(2) Not in the sense of moral superiority. The highest greatness is moral. In every age men have appeared amongst their fellows as moral divinities, they have reflected the rays of Divine purity and beneficence. But human rulers have seldom been of this class.(3) Not in the sense of their own estimation. It is very true that many worldly rulers have esteemed themselves as gods, and, like Herod of old, demanded the worship of their fellow-men. But in none of these senses does the psalmist say they are "gods." His sense is an official sense. "The powers that be are ordained of God." 2. They are here called, "children of the Most High." The kingly office is a Divine creation. He is the "minister of God," says Paul. II. Their MORTAL DOOM. "Ye shall die like men."(1) The most illustrious must meet with a common event. They "die like men." He who is chief in the most elevated ranks of life must die as the obscurest in life's lowest grades. "He bringeth the princes to nothing, he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity." Death mingles sceptres with spades.(2) The most illustrious will meet with this common end in a way peculiar to themselves. "Fall like one of the princes." There are feelings which a prince must have in dying, utterly unknown to the dying man in humbler life — feelings, methinks, that add agony and horror to the hour. Other things being equal, death would be easier in a hovel than in a palace. (Homilist.) 1. "I have said, Ye are gods," etc.(1) This name informs us what kind of rulers and magistrates we should choose; those which excel all other men, like gods among men. For a king should he a man after God's own heart, like David.(2) This extolleth the calling of magistrates. There is a difference between kings and inferior magistrates; for the prince is like a great image of God, the magistrates are like little images of God, appointed to rule for God, to make laws for God, to reward for God, to punish for God, to speak for God, to fight for God, to reform for God, and therefore their battles are called "The Lord's battles;" and their judgments, "The Lord's judgments;" and their throne, "The Lord's throne;" and the kings themselves, "His kings," to show that they are all for God, like His hands. By some He teacheth mercy, by some justice, by some peace, by some counsel, as Christ distributed the loaves and the fishes by the hands of His disciples (Matthew 14:18). This God requires of all when He calls them gods, to rule as He would rule, judge as He would judge, correct as He would correct, reward as He would reward, because it is said, that they are instead of the Lord God; that is, to do as He would do, as a scholar writes by a copy.(3) They are called gods, to teach them how they should govern, Howsoever other care for the glory of God, the performance of His will, the reformation of His Church, princes and rulers, which are gods themselves, are to do the business of God as their own business, God's law is their law, God's honour is their honour.(4) They are called gods, to encourage them in their office, and to teach them that they need not dread the persons of men; but as God doth that which is just and good without the jealousy of men, so they, upon the bench, and in all causes of justice, should forget themselves to be men, which are led by the arms between favour and fear, and think themselves gods, which fear nothing. 2. It followeth, "but ye shall die as a man." Here he distinguisheth between mortal gods and the immortal God. Ye have seen their glory; now behold their end. As if he would prevent some conceit that they would take of tim words which he east out before, he cools them quickly before they swell, and defers not to another time; but where he calls them gods, there he calls them worms' meat, lest they should crow between the praise and the check, "I have said that ye are gods, but ye shall die like other men." But for this, many would live a merry life, and feast, and sport, and let the world slide; but the remembrance of death is like a damp, which puts out all the lights of pleasure, and makes him frown and whine which thinks upon it, as if a mote were in his eye. (Henry Smith.) 1. In receiving honour from others. 2. In giving laws to others. 3. In executing the law, punishing the guilty and acquitting the innocent. II. THE DUTY OF MAGISTRATES. They ought to resemble God in their execution of justice amongst men. 1. In not favouring any for their nearness. Pompey, aspiring to the Roman empire, and perceiving that Cato was against him, sent his friend Minucius to Cato to demand his two nieces, one for himself, the other for his son. But when the messenger had delivered his errand, Cato gave him this answer: Go, tell Pompey, Cato is not to be won by women. As long as Pompey shall deal uprightly, I shall be his friend, and in a greater degree than any marriage can ever make me. Surely this moralist will condemn many Christian rulers, of whom it is said that the sun might as soon be hindered from running his race, as he from doing what was just and upright. 2. In not sparing or fearing any for their greatness. Papinianus is worthy of eternal memory, who chose rather to die than justify or excuse the fratricide of Bossianus the emperor. (G. Swinnock, M. A.) 1. Their commission is from God (Proverbs 8:15; Romans 13:1).2. Their command to govern is from God (Deuteronomy 17.). 3. Their protection is from God. As a king defendeth his inferior officers in the execution of their offices, so the King of kings defendeth magistrates in the discharge of their trusts. "God standeth in the congregation among the gods" (Psalm 82:1), not only to observe whether they offer injuries to others, but also to take care that they receive no injuries from others. 4. The subjection of their people to them is from God. If He that ruleth the boisterous waves of the sea, and shutteth them up with bars and doors (Psalm 65:7), did not put forth the same almighty power in quieting the spirits, and stilling the tumults of the people, it could never be done. Well might David say, "It is God that subdueth my people under me" (Psalm 144:1, 2). (G. Swinnock, M. A.) If the God of heaven have appointed you to be gods on earth, then it may exhort you to walk as gods, and to work as gods amongst men.1. Walk as gods among men; your calling is high, and therefore your carriage should be holy. The greater your privileges are, the more gracious your practices should be. Remember whose livery you wear, whose image you bear, whose person you represent, whose place you stand in, and walk worthy of that calling whereunto you are called (Ephesians 4:1). Whether, saith one, a gangrene begin at the head or the heel, it will kill; but a gangrene in the head will kill sooner than one in the heel. Even so will the sins or great ones overthrow a State sooner than the sins of small ones; therefore the advice of Sigismund the emperor, when a motion was made for reformation, was, Let us begin at the minorities, saith one. No: rather, saith he, let us begin at the majorities; for if the great ones be good, the meaner cannot easily be evil. 2. Work as gods.(1) Execute justice impartially. It is a principle in moral policy, that an ill executor of the laws is worse in a State than a great breaker of them; and the Egyptian kings presented the oath to their judges, not to swerve from their consciences, though they received a command from themselves to the contrary. A magistrate should be a heart without affection, an eye without lust, a mind without passion, or otherwise his hand wilt do unrighteous actions. The Grecians placed Justice betwixt Leo and Libra, thereby signifying that there ought to be both magnanimity in executing and indifferency in determining.(2) As you should work like gods amongst men in executing justice impartially, so likewise in showing mercy: God is the:Father of mercies (1 Corinthians 1:8); rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4); He hath multitudes of tender mercies (Psalm 51:1); He is abundant in mercy (1 Peter 1:3); His mercy is free (Romans 9:15); great (Psalm 57:10); matchless (Jeremiah 3:1); sure (Isaiah 55:1).(3) Work as God's in promoting piety to your power. Oh, consider, is it not reasonable as well as religious that you who rule by God should rule for God? that that power which you have received from Him should be improved mostly for Him? (G. Swinnock, M. A.) Death is to every man a fall, from everything but God and godliness. Ye that are magistrates fall more stairs, yea, more storeys, than others. The higher your standing while ye live, the lower your falling when ye die. If magistrates are mortal, observe hence death's prevalency and power above all the privileges and prerogatives of nature. It is a memorable speech of Sir Walter Raleigh, Though God, who loveth men, is not regarded, yet death, which hateth men, is quickly obeyed. O mighty death! O eloquent death! whom no man could advise or persuade, Thou canst prevail with. Take notice from hence, that nothing in this world can privilege a man against the arrest of death Are magistrates mortal? Let me then, in the fear of the Lord, beseech you that are magistrates, now presently to make preparation for the hour of your dissolutions. My counsel shall be, with a little alteration, in the words of the prophet Isaiah to King Hezekiah, "Now set your house in order, for you must die" (Isaiah 38:6). I must tell you, all the time ye have is little enough for a work of this weight. In reference to this great duty of preparing for your dying day, I shall commend six particulars to your most serious thoughts.1. Discharge your trust faithfully. The way to have great confidence when ye die, is to keep a good conscience whilst ye live. 2. Live among men exemplarily. Ye are the nurses of the people (Isaiah 49:23), and our naturalists observe that what disease nurses have, the children will partake of. Now, how will it gall your consciences, when ye come to die, if ye have been ringleaders in iniquity, and not patterns of piety. 3. Walk humbly with God. I have read of Agathocles, king of Sicily, that being a potter's son, he would be always served in earthen vessels, to mind him of his original. Some write of a bird so light and feathery, that it is forced to fly with a stone in its mouth, lest the wind should carry it away. The truth is, men that are high in place, are apt to be carried away with the wind of high-mindedness; they had need, therefore, to have earth in their minds, I mean their frailty, and it may prove, through the blessing of Heaven, a singular preservative. 4. Must ye die, and would ye prepare for it, then be active for God whilst ye live; the serious thought of death in your hearts will put life into your hands. This life is all your day of working, death is the night of resting. 5. Labour to find some inward work of grace wrought upon your hearts; be not contented with forms, but mind the power of godliness. A man may live by a form, but he cannot die by a form; when death cometh, when that damp ariseth, the candle of profession, separated from the power of religion, will first burn blue, and then go out; the bellows of death will blow the spark of sincerity into a flame, and the blaze of hypocrisy into nothing. 6. Make sure of an interest in Christ, in the death of the Lord Jesus. There is no shroud to this — namely, to be wrapt in the winding-sheet of Christ's righteousness. (G. Swinnock, M. A.) And fall like one of the princes Plain Sermons by Contributors to the, Tracts for the Times," Death is the most awful of earthly things to all persons of all ranks; but there is something in the death of a king peculiarly solemn and instructive to all who are willing to consider matters with the fear of God before their eyes. It is a bad sign when people listen eagerly to the accounts of our King's sickness, death, and funeral, merely as to something new, and there an end.1. First, a man must be cold hearted indeed, not to feel in such an event the touch of an Almighty hand, awakening him to consider the utter vanity and worthlessness of this life, considered in itself. 2. But, secondly, although the sight of a king's death is naturally apt to make us all have sad thoughts of our common mortality, yet the Scripture warns us that we think not rudely on it, as if it proved kings, while they lived, to be no more than other men. You perceive, that in this same place where kings are warned that they shall "die like men," they are nevertheless called gods, and are said to be all of them "the children of the Most Highest." Wherefore the death of one sovereign, and succession of another, may well cause us to have serious thoughts of the high and sacred office of our King; and to remember that he is "the minister of God"; a minister in somewhat of the same sense as bishops and priests are ministers. "Fear God, honour the King." 3. Thirdly, we learn to have duo thoughts of the great anxiety of His Majesty's office, and the especial dangers, spiritual and temporal, which must needs wait upon so high a trust in this bad and unquiet world. "Ye shall fall like one of the princes;" evidently meaning that princes, as such, were in more than common danger of falling; their life, as it were, hung by a thread, so many and so restless were their enemies, and so wearisome their heavy duties. In our time, and in our part of the world, the personal danger of a sovereign may be much diminished; though many who now live may remember a King of France murdered publicly by his own subjects; a sad proof that good and great kings are not yet exempt from violent deaths. Let us, then, remember to join most earnestly in the Church's prayers for the sovereign; and lot us learn to be more and more contented with our own condition. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to the "Tracts for the Times,") I. THE PICTURE.1. Earthly greatness at its highest elevation. The persons addressed were the judges, rulers, princes of Israel, and they are entitled gods, sons of the Most High, as being, in the office they held, in the authority which clothed them, and in the powers they wielded, representatives of God among their brethren. The title bespeaks for them nothing of Divinity, or infallibility, or even personal goodness. It simply claims for their position authority and power as of God. 2. Earthly greatness in its vanity and failure. Each setting sun flames out in warning colours, that life's sunset is also at hand. Each autumn's decay, shedding leaves, and flowers, and fruit into a wintry grave, is a type to our saddened eye of the parallel scene, when all our honours shall be gathered into dust. Each night that receives us into its soft slumber, pictures the dreamless sleep that comes after the fatigue of life's battles and burdens. II. THE LESSONS. 1. The insignificance of all earthly distinctions. There is no sounder part of true wisdom than a just sense of the difference between the littleness of time and the magnitude of eternity. The deep, habitual sense of this difference is the necessary ballast of the ship that would safely navigate the perilous sea of life, swept by terrible tempests. 2. To cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils. What multitudes of the greatest have risen and fallen, and God's work has gone on as before. What a blow to the Church when Joseph, Moses, David, Paul, Luther died; yet the Church was blessed not only by their lives but by their deaths, as much by their deaths as by their lives. By the very force of affection with which the Church clung to them while living, was she constrained, when they died, to grasp with a mightier faith the living Redeemer. 3. To lead us to prepare for eternity — not only because we have no other time than the present should this be done, but because the only preparation is life-preparation. (J. Riddell.) This is a short psalm, little quoted, and seldom used. Jesus quoted this psalm, and, in doing so, showed its meaning and reference. When the Jews pronounced Him a blasphemer, because He made Himself the Son of God, in condemnation of them, and in defence of Himself, He quoted this Scripture of their own, in which earthly rulers were called gods, and all of them children of the Most High, in the authorized, unobjectionable language of inspiration. The Saviour's argument was this, that if the powers that be, as ordained of God, might be so named, much more might He call Himself the Son of God, who, the Father's equal, came on His errand to put an end to sin, and to bring in an everlasting righteousness. In this way there is no doubt that these words call us to think of earthly kings and princes, judges and rulers of this world, and the great ones among men.I. OUR TENDENCY TO EXAGGERATE EARTHLY GREATNESS. Even to this hour, some among ourselves, contemplating those who bask in the sunshine of worldly prosperity — those who tower far above other men in the dignity, grandeur and influence of earthly station, so exaggerate the position, that if not applying to them the words of our text, and saying, "ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High," withal imagine that these are the special favourites of heaven, and that blessed of God, they are to be admired, if not envied of men! Let us beware of all such thoughts. Admitting the value of earthly greatness, and the worth of worldly glory in their own place — and to question either were to belie nature, and to contradict Scripture — there are better things than earthly greatness in its most attractive type; better things than worldly glory in its most fascinating form. It is only by faith in Jesu's name that either king or subject, potentate or pauper, can choose the good part which shall never be taken from them. II. THE CURE FOR THE ERROR OF EXAGGERATING EARTHLY GREATNESS IN THE FACT OF UNIVERSAL MORTALITY. Suffer me to handle in your presence those things which are the recognized emblems of earthly greatness and of worldly glory, — the crown, the coronet, the throne and the like. Shall I speak of them as baubles, toys, trifles? No; nature does not so regard them, nor do I find such names for them in the Word of God. Still — "Be wise, ye kings; be taught, ye judges of the earth." The throne I — it must be left for the tomb. So perish the things which are seen — for the things which are seen are temporal. But faith, hope, and charity, these three — the faith of Jesu's name; the hope which maketh not ashamed; charity, which is the bond of perfectness — there abideth these three. And, through grace, be these the heritage of kings and princes; and when their crowns and coronets fade and fail, these shall be for them in heaven a better and enduring substance. These, through grace, be the heritage of the poor of this world; and they, chosen rich in faith, shall inherit a kingdom that fadeth not away, and that cannot be shaken or removed. (John Smart, D. D.) Caesar was cruelly assassinated in the zenith of his glory. Casimir, King of Poland, died in the act of raising a jewelled cup to his lips. The Emperor Celsus was put to death seven days after his election. Charles XII. descended from the position of a conqueror to that of a forlorn exile. On the 24th of February, 1848, Louis Philippe rose in the Tuileries the King of the French; before midday he was a fugitive. Napoleon is one day ' "the arbiter of the destinies of Europe," and the next a forlorn exile on St. Helena.People Asaph, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Death, Die, Fall, Falling, Heads, Mere, Nevertheless, Prince, Princes, Ruler, RulersOutline 1. The psalmist, having exhorted the judges5. And reproved their negligence 8. Prays God to judge Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 82:6-7Library Thou Shalt not Bear False Witness against Thy Neighbor. This Commandment seems small, and yet is so great, that he who would rightly keep it must risk and imperil life and limb, goods and honor, friends and all that he has; and yet it includes no more than the work of that small member, the tongue, and is called in German Wahrheit sagen, "telling the truth" and, where there is need, gainsaying lies; so that it forbids many evil works of the tongue. First: those which are committed by speaking, and those which are committed by keeping silent. By speaking, … Dr. Martin Luther—A Treatise on Good Works His Statement of the Proof of his Messiahship. --His Oneness With Christ's Interpretation of Psalm cx. , 1 (Mark, xii. , 35-37. ) Brief Outline of Ancient Jewish Theological Literature Synagogues: their Origin, Structure and Outward Arrangements Notes on the First Century: The Meaning Of Civil Government. The Unity of God At the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple. They Shall be Called the Children of God Feast of the Dedication. The Jews Attempt to Stone Jesus and He Retires to Peræa. In the Last, the Great Day of the Feast' The Saints' Privilege and Profit; Epistle v. To Theoctista, Sister of the Emperor. Psalms Links Psalm 82:7 NIVPsalm 82:7 NLT Psalm 82:7 ESV Psalm 82:7 NASB Psalm 82:7 KJV Psalm 82:7 Bible Apps Psalm 82:7 Parallel Psalm 82:7 Biblia Paralela Psalm 82:7 Chinese Bible Psalm 82:7 French Bible Psalm 82:7 German Bible Psalm 82:7 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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