And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us (comp. Psalms 45:1-17:24, "Thou art fairer than the children of men;" Psalms 27:4, "To behold the beauty of the Lord;" Isaiah 33:17, "Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty"). The "beauty of God" is upon us when we see and realize the loveliness of his character. And establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. The repetition adds nothing, except it be emphasis. God is asked, finally, to "establish the work" in which his servants are engaged—to bless it; that is, to advance it and prosper it. The nature of the "work" is not mentioned.
HOMILETICS
The fundamental truths of all religion.
"Lord, thou hast been our Dwelling place," etc. This psalm is a monument of spiritual power. It possesses in eminent. degree the perennial freshness which so wonderfully belongs to Scripture. Generations pass. Centuries mount up into thousands of years; but this ancient psalm lifts up its voice with undecaying strength and sweetness. It reminds us of a granite pillar which casts its unchanging image on a river which flows past, as it has flowed for ages. The inscription, cut thousands of years ago, is unworn by the finger of time; it is clear and sharp, as if cut yesterday. The psalm has been spoken of as "perhaps the most sublime of human compositions, the deepest in feeling, the loftiest in theologic conception, the most magnificent in its imagery" (Isaac Taylor). Even those who question the tradition that it was written by Moses (perhaps more from the habit of questioning than for any solid reason) are utterly at a loss to suggest who else can have been its author. Whether Moses or not, he "wrote as he was moved by the Holy Ghost." These opening verses express the fundamental truths of all religion. the eternal existence of God; the dependence of all other existence on him as Creator, and our personal relation to him as our Almighty Father and Friend—"our Dwelling place in all generations."
I.THE ETERNITY OF GOD. His underived, unchangeable, self-existent being; independent of time. "From everlasting … thou art God." The Hebrew word means "duration," past or future; here, evidently, unlimited duration, or, as we say, eternity. The eternity of God, like his immensity, his omniscience, omnipotence, one of the truths reason cannot grasp, but is compelled to affirm. If we try to think of boundless, actually infinite space, we are baffled. Yet the moment we try to imagine a bound, thought overleaps it. So we cannot comprehend a past eternity; yet the moment we suppose a beginning, we cannot help asking—What was before that? The greatest philosopher of Germany thought he had got rid of the perplexity by asserting that time and space have no existence except in our minds. But this ignores the plain fact that the whole universe, from the movement of suns and systems to the growth of a grain of seed or the ticking of a watch, is based on the reality of time and space, and governed by them. Faith accepts what reason cannot grasp; and falls down and worships "him that liveth forever and ever."
II. THE DEPENDENCE OF ALL OTHER EXISTENCE ON THE SELF-EXISTENT, THE ETERNAL. "Ere ever thou hadst formed," etc. All things, God excepted, had a beginning (Hebrews 11:3; Revelation 4:11; Romans 11:36). Here, again, philosophy has striven hard to get rid of the necessity for creation; to lead us to believe matter and force eternal, and the parents of life, order, beauty, happiness. But the deepest science assures us that the universe in its present state is far enough from either immutable or everlasting; that life can spring only from life; and that the primary material of the universe—atoms, or whatever else we like to call it—bears as clearly the marks of being fitted to its work, by weight, measure, number, exact proportion, as the rudder and screw of a ship, or the beam and flywheel of a steam engine. Science, which is nothing but the study of God's plans and methods of working, leads us back from all vain imaginings to the throne of God. Our deepest thought, our widest, most searching questionings of nature, cannot take us outside of St. Paul's simple, profound declaration, "In him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28).
III. OUR PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. "Lord, thou hast been our Dwelling place." Our Refuge, our Rest, our Home. All that we can learn of God, or conjecture concerning him, would profit us nothing, if we do not say, "This God is our God forever and ever" (Psalms 48:14). The same word and thought meet us in the sublime blessing (Deuteronomy 33:27). (Internal confirmation of Mosaic authorship.) The thought of God dwelling with his people, is frequent; the great purpose of the tabernacle, with its covering cloud, and all connected with it, was to impress this idea (for the highest fulfilment of which, see Ephesians 2:22; Revelation 21:3). But here God is himself our Habitation. The whole range of Gentile religious thought cannot (I believe) produce a parallel to this tender, attractive, yet glorious representation of God as the Eternal Home of his people. In that most mournful, though beautiful psalm, in which the psalmist can see nothing but the frailty and vanity of human life, and Faith struggles not to lose her hold, he thinks of himself as "a sojourner" with God (Psalms 39:12). His fainting faith would have revived, had he said, "No! a sojourner with men, a pilgrim on earth; but at home with thee!"
REMARKS.
1. How close, tender, full of encouragement, is this relation! To what does the heart cling more lovingly, trustfully, restfully, than to our home?
2. This looks beyond this fleeting life, the shadowy brevity of which is so powerfully contrasted, throughout the psalm, with the opening thought of God's eternity. We are never to leave home (cf. Psalms 48:14). Our Guide till death; our God forever. Compare our Lord's argument (Luke 20:37, Luke 20:38).
3. The unity of the Church: "all generations" of the long succession of believers have one Home (Hebrews 11:13, Hebrews 11:16, Hebrews 11:40).
4. Our Lord Jesus claims to sustain this relation (John 15:4-7; 1 John 2:28).