A horrible kind of happiness.
Can the sentiments of our text, and of these verses, and the many like them in these psalms, be justified? Are they not wicked, cruel, unchristian, and so to be utterly condemned by all good men? Such questions are continually asked. But let it be remembered—
I. OPPRESSION DRIVES EVEN WISE MEN MAD. These terrible utterances are the product of a cruelly oppressed and suffering people. Let us put ourselves in their place.
II. THAT IT IS THE LANGUAGE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, NOT OF THE NEW. Now, the Old Testament taught:
1. That God's retributions, both to the good and evil, were given here and now, in temporal blessing or the reverse. They had no clear knowledge of a future life, still less of any judgment to come.
2. That the Divine character was to be known by these retributions, and God's honor maintained, and the true religion upheld by them.
3. Hence they were told to invoke curses on the wicked, and they would feel it wrong not to do so. How else could God be glorified?
4. The prosperity of the wicked was a great trial to them. It seemed so to dishonor God and to imperil his truth in the world. Hence:
5. We are net justified in attributing these utterances to mere personal spite and revenge. Their motive was far other and higher.
III. THAT ALL WAR IS THE PRACTICAL CARRYING OUT OF THE PRINCIPLES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. Even with all the alleviations and mitigations of modern and more Christian days, war does the very things which in these psalms many think so wrong.
IV. THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO DO DREADFUL THINGS WITHOUT BEING POSSESSED OF A DREADFUL SPIRIT. Many men deem war to be at times necessary and just; and surely it can be so, and often has been; and they have urged such war as in the sight and under the fear of God. The magistrate is not to bear the sword in vain, but to remember that he is the minister of God.
V. RECOGNIZE OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. And rejoice in it and spread it far and wide. For this gospel not only takes away all excuse for the vindictive spirit, but ever tends to lessen the occasions which provoke it. Let it but spread, and there shall be no more such horrible happiness as that which our text seems to contemplate and approve.—S.C.