Do ye thus requite the Lord.
Magnitude of the Divine favours
I. What God has done for us. Everything. We are indebted to Him for our being, and our well-being; for all our present comforts, and future hopes. The goodness of God is a boundless sea, without either bottom or shore. His favours for multitude, diversity, and splendour, resemble the stars of heaven, which the more attentively they are viewed, appear the more numerous, and, were we not so immensely distant from them, would equally astonish us with their magnitude and order.
1. Creation.
2. Preservation.
3. Redemption.
4. The Gospel.
5. The Holy Spirit.
II. How we ought in reason, duty, and interest to requite the Lord for His gifts.
1. If we ourselves are the creatures of God’s power, and have no faculty of soul, no member of body, no endowment of any kind, but what we have received from Him, surely it ill-becomes us to boast of anything that we have, as though we received it not; or to value ourselves on account of what is not our own, but only lent us for a little time, and to be redemanded soon with usury.
2. This leads me to a second inference, that the many mercies of God have laid an indispensable obligation upon us unfeignedly and gratefully to praise Him.
3. But again, may we not infer, from the preceding observations, that it is no less our duty to trust in God than it is humbly to praise Him? The many and wonderful things which He hath done for us leave no room to doubt either of His goodness or power; either of His inclination or ability to help and save us.
4. The loving kindness of the Lord to us-ward, so wonderfully displayed, so incessantly exercised, notwithstanding our ingratitude, certainly demands returns of love, and lays us under an indispensable obligation to serve and glorify Him. (J. Benson.)
An appeal to the conscience
No arrow is so sharp as a well-timed and well-directed question, winged with such precision as this. It goes straight to the conscience; and whatever else religion deals with, it must deal primarily with the conscience. The song proceeds to make appeal to the imagination, the memory, the judgment, the heart, but all with the view of getting, through them, at the conscience. Its grand purpose is to bring the Lord into contact with the people’s conscience; and as there are no more effective grappling hooks with which to seize the conscience and moor it closely alongside of Him than a series of questions, we have them here in a triple array: “Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is not He thy Father that hath bought thee?” that is, hath paid for thine emancipation out of Egypt, so that you, might get away scathless and free? “Hath not He made and established thee?” Made a people and nation of thee, given thee a name and place of unprecedented distinction among surrounding tribes, established law and settled institutions in your midst, advanced you to peculiar privileges, and put you into the condition of an orderly and well-regulated Church and State? It was a fit time to recall the past, to remember their original nothingness, to take a review of what they once were, and what they had even already become. (A. H. Drysdale, M. A.)
Man’s ungrateful requital to God
I have sometimes had the misfortune to sit in concerts where persons would chatter and giggle and laugh during the performance of the profoundest passages of the symphonies of the great artists; and I never fail to think, at such times, “I ask to know neither you, nor your father and mother, nor your name: I know what you are, by the way you conduct yourself here--by the want of sympathy and appreciation which you evince respecting what is passing around you.” We could hardly help striking a man who should stand looking upon Niagara Falls without exhibiting emotions of awe and admiration. If we were to see a man walk through galleries of genius, totally unimpressed by what he saw, we should say to ourselves, “Let us be rid of such an unsusceptible creature as that.” Now I ask you to pass upon yourselves the same judgment. What do you suppose angels, that have trembled and quivered with ecstatic joy in the presence of God, think when they see how indifferent you are to the Divine love and goodness in which you are perpetually bathed, and by which you are blessed and sustained every moment of your lives? How can they do otherwise than accuse you of monstrous ingratitude and moral insensibility which betokens guilt as well as danger? (H. W. Beecher.)
Is not He thy Father that hath bought thee?--
God’s paternal relation and claim
I. God as the father of His people.
1. He has redeemed them by Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19).
2. He is the Author of their spiritual existence (Ephesians 2:10).
3. He has made paternal provision for them (Philippians 4:19).
4. He grants parental protection to them (Psalms 91:4).
5. He imparts paternal instruction (Isaiah 54:13).
6. He takes great delight in them (Isaiah 66:13).
7. He administers fatherly correction (Jeremiah 30:11).
8. He has made paternal provision for them (Psalms 31:19).
II. The claims which He has upon His children.
1. He ought to have our highest reverence (Hebrews 12:28).
2. He ought to have our supreme affection (Deuteronomy 6:5).
3. He should possess our unwavering confidence (Isaiah 12:2).
4. He should have our cheerful obedience (2 Corinthians 10:4-6).
5. Our continual gratitude and praise (1 Peter 2:9). (T. B. Baker.)
The parental character of God
The term “father” implies all that is most tender and affectionate. The love of a father is immeasurable. It extends to everything which can affect the welfare of his offspring. Is not God your Father?
1. Did not He create you? Was it not He who, having created you, committed you to the charge of your earthly parents, and disposed their minds to watch with unceasing care over your welfare? Is it not, therefore, in a secondary sense only that we are to ascribe the term of father to our earthly parent, while the primary and full meaning of the word belongs only to our Creator? Let us remember that, in having God for our Father, we possess the highest honour and the noblest privilege which any created beings can enjoy.
2. There is another sense in which the title of Father is justly claimed by God. He is the Father who hath bought us. When I have reflected upon the signal proofs which God has given of His paternal feelings towards us, I have often been surprised that those whose gratitude to their earthly parents is unbounded, should show so little affection to their heavenly Father, and rely so little on His love and mercy.
The reasons of this inconsistency appear to me to be the following.
1. The undue attachment which we are apt to place on objects of sense. We see and converse with an earthly parent, but our bodily senses do not inform us of the presence of God. Yet the proofs of His presence are actually more strong and numerous than those which attest the existence of any material object.
2. Through the weakness of the human understanding we continually entertain an undue estimation of second causes. We do not feel the extent of our obligations to our heavenly Father, because many of the blessings which He bestows are communicated to us by some instrument appointed for that end. It will probably, however, be generally acknowledged, that the character of God is good and gracious. It is in the practical use of such knowledge that we are chiefly apt to fail.
This is, therefore, the end to which I now shall direct your attention.
1. You ought to entertain the highest reverence for His laws. Read the Bible constantly as containing the will of your heavenly Father.
2. This view of the character of God as our Father gives a just idea of the true nature of religion. Religion is the homage which you pay to your heavenly Father. It is the regulation of your lives by His holy Word. It is the enjoyment of the innumerable benefits offered to mankind through His beloved Son. Religion must bear the stamp and character of its Author.
3. Is God our Father? Then we ought to maintain an intercourse with Him by frequent prayer, and to praise Him daily for His innumerable mercies.
4. Is God our Father? Let us then place a generous confidence in Him. (J. Venn, M. A.)
The paternal character of God
I. God as the father of his people.
1. God is the Author of their spiritual existence.
2. He makes paternal provision for His children.
3. He affords parental protection to His children.
4. He imparts paternal instruction.
5. He takes paternal delight in His children.
6. He administers paternal correction to His children.
7. He lays up a paternal provision for His children.
II. The claims which He has upon His children.
1. He ought to receive from us the highest reverence. We should cultivate His fear.
2. He ought to have our supreme affections. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,” etc.
3. He should possess our unwavering confidence. Trust in Him at all times.
4. He should have our cheerful obedience. “Be ye followers of God as dear children,” etc.
5. He shall receive from us our most exalted praises. (J. Burns, D. D.)