Incongruity in religion.
The psalm brings before us in very vivid color—
I. THE DARK SHADOW CAST BY A GREAT GOOD. Patriotism is an excellent thing, and we are all of us glad and thankful to belong to a land of light and liberty. We would not, on any account, forego so great an advantage, so valuable a privilege. But how much suffering that blessing may entail! Who can measure the intensity of the humiliation and distress which the children of Israel endured when they were torn from their native land, or when they were made to feel their subjection in the streets or the fields of Babylon? They "wept when they remembered Zion." The very beauties of its situation (Psalms 48:2), as contrasted with the dreary levels before their eyes; the very fullness of its privileges, as contrasted with the privations to which they were then submitting, filled their souls with grief. The richer our treasure, the severer our loss; the deeper and stronger our love, the keener and the more sustained our sorrow. "Our affections bring great afflictions, but they are well worth the cost." If we are wise we shall be more than content to pay that price for so great a good. For these sorrows are sacred; they are softening, and they are purifying; they provide the best opportunity for filial resignation; they draw us to God in hallowing communion, and in the prayer which brings down a large blessing from his Holy Spirit.
II. THE LIMITS OF THE MOSAIC CIVILIZATION. No doubt the Law given by Moses was a civilizing institution, and made Israel much wiser and worthier in every way than that people would otherwise have been. But it left much to be desired. Among ether things it left its disciples unredeemed from the cruelties (or many of them) practiced in war. No Christian writer could, with any sort of propriety or consistency, have written the last verse of this psalm. It pains and shocks us as we read it. We conclude that the world wanted another Teacher, whose spirit should inspire, and whose principles should guide and control, his disciples in their treatment of friend and foe. It is not, indeed, that passages could not be found in the Law enjoining mercy; it is that there was needed One who by his own life, and by his gracious Spirit, and by his sovereign power, should be able to influence and inspire his followers with his own thought, and be able to lead them along a higher and nobler way.
III. SOME MARKED INCONGRUITIES IN OUR EXPERIENCE. "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" How shall we sing the happy songs of Zion when we are in the power of the enemy, away from the city that we love, the sanctuary which is our spiritual home? There are "strange lands" to the Christian man, in which the sounds that are native to the soil cannot be expected to be heard. There are spiritual conditions in which the graces of Christian character will not flourish, but will die away. Of such are pride, selfishness, covetousness, self-indulgence, uncharitableness. It would be quite an incongruous thing for thankfulness, helpfulness, piety, forbearance, anticipation of the heavenly kingdom, consecration to the cause of Christ and man, to abound in such "strange lands" as these. When we are called upon to practice the graces of Christian character, and when we find ourselves quite indisposed to do so, when any one of these is uncongenial to us, we should seriously inquire of ourselves where we stand. Are we on Immanuel's ground? Are we on the King's highway? Or are we in some strange land which belongs to the enemy? Is there good reason why we should return, promptly and penitently, to the kingdom from which we have been carried away captive? This is the first thing to do; and the way home is open to all earnest souls.