Homilist Psalm 21:3 For you prevent him with the blessings of goodness: you set a crown of pure gold on his head. I. IN THE NATURAL PROVISION MADE FOR US AS MEN. Let us look a little at this, and see how goodness went before us, worked for us ages before we made our appearance on the stage of life. 1. There was a home exactly fitted for our reception. How exquisitely fitted this earth is to our senses and our wants! Do we crave for beauty? What a gallery of magnificent pictures! Have we an instinct for music? What an orchestra, redolent with every variety of melodious strains! Do we need sustenance? What a rich banquet nature spreads before us! Do we crave for delicious odours? The air is laden with perfumes. Do we need facilities of transit? There is the prancing steed; by our side there grows the timber that will bear us over oceans, and there are the elements ready to our call. Goodness made everything ready here before we came. 2. There was parental love to welcome us. We were not sent into a world of strangers to make acquaintance with those who for us had no sympathy. 3. There were educational elements to develop our powers. Here was the piece of work waiting for us to do it. Here were men and women whose knowledge qualified them to instruct us: schools were here, and libraries. 4. There were wholesome laws to guard our rights. Goodness went before us and made this government. II. IN THE SPIRITUAL PROVISION MADE FOR US AS SINNERS. Pardon and spiritual cleansing were here awaiting us. Redemptive agencies were at full work all about us as we commenced our life. III. IN THE HEAVENLY PROVISION MADE FOR US AS DISCIPLES. What this world was to us before we entered it, heaven is to us now. 1. This world was unknown to us. How ignorant is the unborn child of the home into which he is to be introduced! How little we know of heaven! "Eye hath not seen," etc. 2. This world was exquisitely fitted for us. Its soil, climate, productions. 3. This world has infinitely more than we can enjoy. It is so with heaven, — its provisions are rich, varied, and unbounded. 4. This world welcomed our existence with love. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.WEB: For you meet him with the blessings of goodness. You set a crown of fine gold on his head. |
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