He turneth rivers into a wilderness.
God’s management of man upon the earth
I. It involves great revolutions.
1. In the secular department (Psalms 107:33-38). Sodom’s fertile soil was smitten with barrenness. Canaan, at one time one of the most fruitful spots under heaven, is now one of the most worthless. How does God do this generally?
(1) He does it by man. To man He has given the power to change the character of the soil, to make orchards out of wildernesses, and gardens out of deserts, and thus cause the “wilderness to blossom as the rose.”
(2) He does it by man, with a due regard to man’s character. By the moral, the wise, the industrious man, He makes the barren places fruitful; and by the corrupt, the indolent, the foolish man, He turns a fruitful land into barrenness.
2. In the social department.
(1) In families. Providence has been compared to a wheel; as the wheel goes round, those who are up to-day will be down to-morrow, and the reverse.
(2) In nations.
II. It repays the study of the wisest men. There is no subject for human study of such transcendent interest and importance as that of God’s management of mankind. The study of this subject will serve three purposes.
1. To rejoice the good. “The righteous shall see it and rejoice.” The righteous will see in the subject how wisely, how beneficently, how universally all things are managed, how “all things work together for good to them that love God,” how even evil is overruled to answer benevolent ends.
2. To confound the wicked. “All iniquity shall stop her mouth.” “It shall be,” says an old author, “a full conviction of the folly of atheists, of those that deny the Divine providence, and forasmuch as practical atheism is at the bottom of all sin, it shall in effect stop the mouth of all iniquity. When sinners see how this punishment answers to their sin, and how justly God deals with them in taking away from them those gifts of His which they had abused, they shall not have one word to say for themselves. God will be justified, He will be clear.”
3. To reveal God’s infinite lovingkindness to all.
(1) Human suffering, however great., is never equal in amount to that of human enjoyment. This is obvious from the circumstance that men, even in the greatest affliction and trial, earnestly desire the perpetuation of their life and struggle for it.
(2) Human suffering is generally, if not always, ascribable to human conduct. Either their ancestors or themselves have broken those organic, moral, and social laws, the observance of which is the condition of happiness.
(3) Human suffering may, and should, contribute to lasting enjoyment. Sufferings are disciplinary, they are only storms to purify the moral atmosphere of the world, medicated ingredients in the cup of life which, though bitter, are designed and suited to heal the diseases of the soul, and to make it happy and hale. (Homilist.)