Psalms 119:73 , Psalms 119:116
I. Consider the care of the Creator for the lower creatures of His hand. The lower creatures have instincts given to them by God for their preservation. These instincts are adapted to their wants, and they never mislead the creatures to which they are given. In man's spiritual nature, so far removed above the level of the beasts, we find certain instincts implanted by God instincts evidently given to us to be to our souls in a spiritual way just the same sort of guide that the instincts of the lower creatures are to them in a bodily way.
II. Let us see what these spiritual instincts are. (1) Conscience. We have within us a moral instinct which directs us towards that which is good, which warns us against that which is wrong. Why does God give us this instinct, why does He speak to us through and by it, but because He would guard us from spiritual evil? (2) The sense of justice. This sense of justice is as purely an instinctive feeling as any that man has. And this being so, does it not bear witness to the nature of that Divine Being who has implanted it in man? (3) Prayer is an instinct of the soul of man.
III. It is certainly true that many of the highest of our instinctive moral feelings and powers point towards a life beyond the grave. The whole energy of our spiritual nature does so. For what is this hope that burns within us so vehemently? What is this but an instinctive feeling of our nature? Deep as our faith in God Himself is seated the hope of a life beyond the grave. It is not a belief which is derived from the outward world. It has its roots deep in man's spiritual nature; it springs from the depths of the soul an instinct implanted by God to guide man to his distant home. The psalmists had not received the blessed promises of God in Christ; yet they believed that at God's right hand there are pleasures for evermore, so plainly do the spiritual instincts which God has given to man confirm the blessed promises of God in Christ.
G. Forbes, The Voice of God in the Psalms,p. 109.
References: Psalms 119:83. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. ii., No. 71; S. Cox, Expositions,2nd series, p. 19. Psalms 119:88. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxx., No. 1779. Psalms 119:89-91. S. Cox, Expositions,2nd series, p. 34.Psalms 119:89-92. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxviii., No. 1656.
The fact that hope may spring from tribulation, though only hinted at by the Psalmist in the text, is largely asserted by St. Paul when he says, "Tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope."
I. Take the case of those in whom a work of grace is going forward, who are striving to submit themselves to the operations of God's Spirit; and how true it is of them that "tribulation worketh patience." There is nothing else which can work it. We can only know ourselves possessed of any particular quality when God, in His providence, shall put that quality to the proof. Patience is wrought out by tribulation, not by tribulation in itself, but by tribulation bringing the Christian to reflection and to prayer.
II. "Patience worketh experience." There are various senses in which the word "experience" may be taken; but it properly denotes the putting something to the proof, making the sort of trial which is made of metals by placing them in the fire, in order to the detecting and disentangling the dross. Hence the experience here mentioned by St. Paul must be the ascertaining the precise worth, veracity, and power of the consolations and promises of God. The season of tribulation is the season chosen of God for the especial manifestation of His faithfulness and love.
III. And from experience how natural, how easy, the transition to hope. Surely he who has tried the chart and found it correct, so far as he had the power of trying it, has the best ground for confidence in that chart with regard to ports which he has never yet entered. If we do not register our mercies, or if we never recount them, they are not likely to throw light on coming events. He must be grateful for the past who would be hopeful for the future.
IV. "Ashamed of my hope." This accords accurately with the concluding words of the passage from St. Paul, "Hope maketh not ashamed." How different, then, from any other hope. For is not hope commonly spoken of as most delusive and deceitful? There is nothing airy and unsubstantial which is not taken as too faithful a representation of hope. But Christian hope "maketh not ashamed." It paints no vision which shall not be more than realised; it points to no inheritance which shall not be reached. How should it make ashamed, when it altogether rests itself upon Christ, who is not "ashamed to call us brethren"?
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2080.
References: Psalms 119:117. J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,10th series, p. 180; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxviii., No. 1657; Archbishop Thomson, Anglican Pulpit of Today,p. 16.