Of Israel, as a company of the Lord's saints, Moses says that they are all in God's hand. This was true of the ancient Israel in an important sense, but it is still more fully and extensively true of the spiritual Israel. However much they may differ in many respects from each other, the children of God are all alike in respect of His gracious dealings with them. All His saints are in His hand.
I. The hand of God is a plastic or forming hand, and all His saints are under its transforming power.
II. The hand of the Lord is an upholding and preserving hand, and all His saints enjoy His assistance and protection.
III. The hand of God is a guiding and directing hand, and His saints enjoy the benefit of this in the conduct of their great spiritual interests and business.
IV. The hand of God is a chastising hand, and His saints are sometimes in His hand that they may receive needed correction.
W. Lindsay Alexander, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxii., p. 324.
The text shows us how elaborately God lays out His whole being as altogether engaged for His own people, first His heart; then His hand; then His feet; then His lips. "Yea, He loved the people; all His saints are in Thy hand, and they sat down at Thy feet; every one shall receive of Thy words."
I. A saint means three things. He is (1) a being whom God has set apart for Himself. In this sense David said: "I am holy." In this sense the whole Church are saints. (2) A saint is a person in whom sanctification is going on. Every one in whom the Holy Ghost is acting at this moment is a saint. (3) Those who are perfected in holiness are saints indeed.
II. Saints are in God's hands: (1) as property; (2) in order that He may deal with them as He sees fit; (3) in order that He may hold them up; (4) in order that He may keep them always near Him.
III. "And they sat down at Thy feet." The passage combines the two ideas of rest and teaching.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,6th series, p. 97.
References: Deuteronomy 33:5. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xiv., p. 283 Deuteronomy 33:6-17. F. Whitfield, The Blessings of the Tribes,pp. 53, 79, 97, 213, 225.