Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 10:4
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek [after God]: God [is] not in all his thoughts.
4. The A.V. follows the Ancient Versions in rendering, ‘ the wicked will not seek after God:’ but a comparison of Psa 10:13, which clearly recapitulates Psa 10:3-4, is decisive in favour of rendering as follows:
As for the wicked, according to the loftiness of his looks, he saith, He will not make requisition:
There is no God, is the sum of his devices.
The construction is abrupt and forcible. The wicked man’s scornful countenance is the index of his character (Psa 101:5); all his devices (as Psa 10:2) are planned on the assumption that God does not regard and punish (Psa 9:12); upon a virtual atheism, for such an epicurean deity, “careless of mankind,” would be no ‘living and true God.’ Cp. Psa 14:1.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance – In consequence of his pride; or, his pride is the reason of what is here stated. The pride of his countenance is a phrase that is used because pride shows itself mainly in the countenance, or in a lofty air and manner. The design is to state the influence of pride in producing the effect here specified.
Will not seek after God – The phrase after God, is supplied by our translators. Something clearly is to be supplied, and it is plainly something relating to God – either that the wicked man will not seek after God in prayer, or that he will not inquire after the proofs of his existence and attributes; or that he will not seek after his favor, or that he will not endeavor to know the divine will. All this would be implied in seeking after God, and this is undoubtedly the state of mind that is referred to here. The sinner is unwilling, in any appropriate way, to acknowledge God.
God is not in all his thoughts – Margin, Or, all his thoughts are, There is no God, Psa 14:1. The literal translation is: No God (are) all his thoughts. The margin has undoubtedly expressed the meaning better than the translation in the text, since the spirit of the passage is not that the sinner had no thought of God, but that he thought wrong. The fact that he would not seek God, and that he had said that God had forgotten Psa 10:11, shows that he had some thoughts of God. The language here is properly expressive of belief or desire; either that all his thoughts were that there is no God, i. e, that such was the result of all his meditations and reasonings on the subject; or that he wished that it might be found to be so. The language will admit of either construction, and in either sense it would express the thoughts of the wicked. Its both a matter of practical belief, and as a matter of desire, the language of the wicked is, No God. The wicked wish that there were none; he practically believes that there is none. The entire verse, then, expresses the prevailing feelings of a sinner about God:
(a) That he wishes there were none, and practically believes that there is none; and
(b) that the reason or ground of these feelings is pride. Pride will prevent him from seeking God in the following ways:
(1) It makes him unwilling to recognize his dependence upon any being;
(2) it makes him unwilling to confess that he is a sinner;
(3) it makes him unwilling to pray;
(4) it makes him unwilling to seek aid of anyone, even God, in the business of life, in the prosecution of his plans, or in sickness and affliction;
(5) it makes him unwilling to accede to the terms of reconciliation and salvation proposed by God, unwilling to repent, to believe, to submit to His sovereignty, to acknowledge his indebtedness to mere grace for the hope of eternal life.
Pride is at the root of all the atheism, theoretical or practical, on the earth; at the root of all the reluctance which there is to seek the favor of God; at the root, therefore, of the misery and wretchedness of the world.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 10:4
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God.
The wicked, from pride, refuse to seek God
In this Psalm we have a full-length portrait of a careless, unawakened sinner, drawn by the unerring pencil of truth. Two of the features which compose this portrait are delineated in our text.
1. An unwillingness to seek after God.
2. Pride, which causes that unwillingness.
I. The wicked will not seek after God. They do not, because they will not. To this purpose they obstinately and unalterably adhere, unless their wills are subdued by Divine grace.
1. The wicked will not seek after the knowledge of God. This is evident from Scripture statement, and from the experience of all ages. The wicked will not pray for the knowledge of God, nor improve their opportunities for acquiring the knowledge of God.
2. The wicked will not seek the favour of God. Knowing nothing experimentally of His excellence and perfections, and ignorant of their entire dependence on Him for happiness, they cannot of course realise that the favour of God is life, and His loving kindness is better than life.
3. The wicked will not seek after the likeness of God. That they do not at all resemble Him is certain. They do not wish or endeavour to resemble Him. There is, indeed, in their view, no reason why they should. There are but two motives which can make any being wish to resemble another. A wish to obtain the approbation of the person imitated; or admiration of something in his character, and a consequent desire to inscribe it into our own. But the wicked can be influenced by neither of these motives to seek after conformity to God.
4. The wicked will not seek after communion with God. Communion supposes some degree of resemblance to the being whose communion is sought, and a participation of the same nature, views, and feelings.
II. The reason why the wicked will not seek God.
1. Pride renders God a disagreeable object of contemplation to the wicked, and a knowledge of Him as undesirable. Pride consists in an unduly exalted opinion of ones self. It is therefore impatient of a rival, hates a superior, and cannot endure a master.
2. The pride of the wicked prevents them from seeking the knowledge of God, by rendering them unwilling to be taught. Pride is almost as impatient of a teacher as of a master.
3. Pride renders the wicked unwilling to use the means by which alone the knowledge of God can be acquired. It renders them unwilling to study the Bible in a proper manner. Pride also renders the man unwilling to pray. And it prevents him from improving public and private opportunities for acquiring religious instruction. The pride of the wicked will not allow them to seek after the favour or the likeness of God. It makes them unwilling to seek after communion with God.
Reflections–
1. How evident it is that salvation is wholly of grace, and that all the wicked, if left to themselves, will certainly perish.
2. How depraved, how infatuated, how unreasonable do the wicked appear!
3. How foolish, absurd, ruinous, blindly destructive of its own object does pride appear! The subject may be applied for purposes of self-examination. (E. Payson, D. D.)
The pride of man restrains seeking after God
Christianity made but few converts amongst the disciples of Zeno. Why should it have been so? With their simple and self-denying habits, why were they not attracted by the purer morals of the Gospel? and with their superiority to the surrounding superstitions, why did they not hail that unknown God whom Cleanthus had sung, and whom Paul now preached? The answer we fear is to be found in that little word pride–that little word which is still so great a hindrance to many wise men after the flesh. Amongst the Greeks and Romans the Stoics occupied the same place as the Pharisees amongst the Jews. The very foundation of their theory was to make the virtuous man self-sufficing, and usually they got so far as to make him self-sufficient. In cutting off all other vices the Stoic, like the cynic before him, fostered to enormous magnitude pride or self-complacency, and, as Archer Butler says in his Ancient Philosophy, sought not so much to please the Deity as to be His equal. (J. Hamilton, D. D.)
God is not in all his thoughts.
The sinfulness of forgetting God
A characteristic mark of the ungodly man. Forgetfulness of God is the concealed spring from which the evil and bitter streams of outward wickedness derive their origin.
I. What is intended by having God in all our thoughts. It is not meant that we should have our meditations constantly and invariably fixed upon God. Nor that the most pious and spiritual state of mind will disqualify a man for transacting the proper business of his station. We are here reminded of the necessity of an abiding and habitual impression of our obligations and accountableness to God. The text implies that we should take God as our portion, and expect our highest and best happiness from Him. Whatever it be from which a man expects his chief good, to that his thoughts naturally revert whenever he is not compelled to fix them upon some other object. It will be the favourite topic of his meditations.
II. The consequence of the want of this principle. The man described here is one who lives in a state of habitual forgetfulness of God; acts without an abiding sense of his obligation and accountableness to Him; lives to please himself, rather than Him who made him. This state of mind is the very thing that leads to every act of gross outward sin. Conclusion:
1. Learn not to be satisfied with ourselves, because men approve of us. They cannot at all look at our motives.
2. If, in order to our being approved of God, it is necessary that we should have such a constant regard to Him, is it not clear that the retrospect of our lives will show us that we have been lamentably defective in His sight? Our subject may remind us of our exceeding sinfulness, and of our need of the mercy and grace of God as revealed in the Gospel of His Son. (T. Scott, MA.)
Who are the wicked
The text says that God is not in their thoughts.
1. This is because of practical atheism. God is put out of the way by various theories. One makes the world ten thousand years old, and another ten million. The Bible is sneered at as an old, antiquated book.
2. Ignorance of Gods character is another reason why God is not in mens thoughts. We, as sinful and blinded creatures, cannot justly comprehend a holy God. Even Christs disciples but poorly comprehended Gods character as revealed in Christ. Much more in the case of the sinner is it true that God is not in his thoughts on account of the blindness of sin. Justice and holiness are obscured.
3. A misconception of their own moral condition follows. They lose sight of God because they are not awake to their own ill-desert.
4. Another reason why God is not in the wicked mans thought is because of absorption in the things of the world. The demands of business should be met, but those of God are not to be forgotten. Men know that there is a future life, though some may argue against it. The Sabbath is given as one preparative. (J. H. Hamilton, M. D.)
The place where God is not
God is everywhere, and yet the verse tells us where He is not–in the thoughts of wicked men. This is–
1. A notorious fact. Millions live day by day as if God were not.
2. An astounding fact. It is unnatural, impious, calamitous. Why, then, is God not in their thoughts?
I. Negatively.
1. It is not because there can be any doubt as to the importance of thinking of God.
2. Nor because there is any lack of means to remind men of Him. All things are full of Him.
3. Nor because of the unbroken regularity of the material world. In heaven, where there is the same regularity, their minds ever delight in Him.
4. Nor because man has no consciousness of restraint in action. But all holy souls are equally free.
II. Positively. The cause is in the heart.
1. Fear–the guilty conscience.
2. Dislike; hence men exclude God from their thoughts. Learn, the appalling wickedness of man, and his need of Christ. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
A searching description of the wicked
The heart of the wicked is the only place in the creation of God whence, if we may so speak, the Creator is banished. Inquire–
I. Into the causes of such a state of mind. They penetrate deeper than may at first sight appear. It is nothing temporary or accidental that causes the forgetfulness of which the Psalmist complains; the evil is general and radical. It has its source in our original apostasy; it extends to us all by nature; no man is free from its influence. Subordinate to this primary and leading cause there are individual causes which, though but results of the former, become in their turn new and fruitful causes of the same effect. The constant pressure of worldly concerns, even when lawful, tends to banish God from our thoughts. But mere inattention is not the whole cause why God is not more in the hearts of men. They wilfully and deliberately banish Him from their thoughts. They are anxious to forget Him. And the reason is that they do not truly love God. What we love is always welcome to our thoughts.
II. Into the evils resulting therefrom. In fact, all the vice that exists among mankind arises from their not having God in their thoughts. Did men seriously think upon God they would not dare to sin as they too often do.
III. Into the method of overcoming this unhappy state of character.
1. Learn to contemplate the Almighty in the magnitude of His terrors,
2. Let us view God in the abundance of His love. (Christian Observer.)
A discourse on habitual devotion
It is characteristic of a good man that he sets the Lord always before him, whereas it is said of the wicked, God is not in all their thoughts. This seems to furnish a pretty good test of the state of a mans mind with respect to virtue and vice. The wicked man is a practical atheist. The good man sees God in everything, and everything in God. An habitual regard of God is the most effectual means of advancing us from the more imperfect to the more perfect state. Recommend this duty by an enumeration of its happy effects.
1. An habitual regard to God in our actions tends greatly to keep us firm in our adherence to our duty. It has pleased Divine Providence to place man in a state of trial and probation. This world is strictly such. God has placed us under laws. We are certainly less liable to forget these laws, and our obligation to observe them, when we keep up an habitual regard to our great Lawgiver and Judge, when we consider Him as present with us.
2. An habitual regard to God promotes an uniform cheerfulness of mind. It tends to dissipate melancholy and anxiety.
3. Fits a man for the business of this life, giving a peculiar presence and intrepidity of mind, and is therefore the best support in difficult enterprises of any kind. Consider the most proper and effectual methods of promoting this temper of mind.
(1) Endeavour to divest your minds of too great a multiplicity of the cares of this world;
(2) Do not omit stated times of worshipping God by prayer, public and private;
(3) Omit no opportunity of turning your thoughts to God;
(4) Never fail to have recourse to God upon every occasion of strong emotion of mind;
(5) Labour to free your minds of all consciousness of guilt and self-reproach;
(6) Cultivate in your minds just ideas of God. (J. Priestley, LL. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 4. Will not seek after God] He is too proud to bend his knee before his Judge; he is too haughty to put on sackcloth, and lay himself in the dust, though without deep repentance and humiliation he must without doubt perish everlastingly.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Through the pride; by which he scorns to stoop to God, or to own any superior, and makes himself and his own lusts his only rule, and his last end, and is full of self-confidence, and a conceit of his own self-sufficiency and unchangeable felicity, as is hated, Psa 10:6.
Of his countenance; so called, because though pride be properly seated in the heart; whence it is called pride, or loftiness of heart, or spirit, as Psa 131:1; Pro 16:18; Ecc 7:8, &c.; yet it is manifested in the countenance, and therefore is oft described by lofty looks, as Psa 101:5; 131:1; Pro 6:17; 21:4; 30:13, &c.; which possibly was done purposely to meet with the excuses of proud persons, who when they are charged with pride for their looks, or gestures, or apparel, or the like, use to make this apology for themselves, that pride lies in the heart, and not in these outward things.
Will not seek after God, i.e. not seek or inquire into the mind and will of God, to order his life by it so as to please God, nor seek to him by prayer for his favour and blessing. But the words
after God are not in the Hebrew, and it is thought by some too great boldness to add them here. And therefore others omit it, and render the Hebrew words, will not search, or consider, to wit, his actions, which seems to be a more natural and, easy supplement: he will not trouble himself to inquire whether his actions be just or unjust, pleasing or offensive to God; but without any care or consideration rusheth into sin, and doth whatsoever seemeth right in his own eyes. But these and the former words are and may be, and that very agreeably to the Hebrew, thus rendered without any supplement,
The wicked, through his pride, ( for so this Hebrew word by itself signifies, Isa 5:16; 10:33) will not seek his (i.e. Gods, which is plain both from the foregoing and following words) face, which is a usual phrase in Scripture, as 2Ch 7:14; Psa 24:6; 27:8; 105:4, &c.
God is not in all his thoughts; he hath no serious thoughts of nor regard unto God, or his word, which ought to command him; or his threats and judgments, which should keep him in awe. Or,
all his thoughts are, There is no God, to wit, no such God as minds the affairs of the world, and the actions of men, and punisheth sinners. He was a deist, and owned a God, at least in words, but denied his providence.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. The face expresses theself-conceit, whose fruit is practical atheism (Ps14:1).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek [after God],…. We supply it, “after God”; as do the Targum and Kimchi on the place: the sense is, he will not seek to God for counsel or assistance, he will not pray unto him; which is the character of every unregenerate man, Ro 3:11; or, he will not inquire into the will of God, to know what is right or what is wrong, but will do what seems best in his own eyes: and this arises from the pride of his heart, which shows itself in his countenance, in his proud and haughty look. It is said of the little horn, who is antichrist, that he has a look more stout than his fellows, Da 7:20. The words may be rendered, “the wicked inquires not into the height of his anger”; so Ainsworth observes; that is, of God’s anger; he is not concerned about it; he neither fears God nor regards men. Jarchi’s sense of the words is,
“all his thoughts say unto him, God will not inquire into everything that I shall do, for there is no judgment.”
God [is] not in all his thoughts; nor in any of them, for they are evil continually; and if he does at any time think of him, his thoughts of him are wrong; he thinks he is altogether such an one as himself: or, “all his thoughts [are, there is] no God” z: though he does not choose to say so, he thinks so; at least, he wishes it may be so; and he works himself into such impiety and atheism as to deny the providence of God, and thinks that he does not govern the world, nor concern himself with what is done below; that he takes no notice of men’s actions, nor will call them to an account for them; and that there will be no future state or judgment, in which secret as well as open things will be made manifest: or, as the Chaldee paraphrase glosses it, “that all his thoughts are not manifest before the Lord”.
z “non Deus, omnes cogitationes ejus”, Montanus, Vatablus, Muis; “nullum esse Deum hae sunt omnes cogitationes ejus”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Ainsworth.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
4. The ungodly, in the pride of his countenance, etc Others translate the words, The ungodly man, by reason of the violence of his anger, or, in the pride which he displays, does not inquire after God. But this partly perverts the meaning, and partly weakens the force of what David intended to express. In the first place, the word inquire, which is here put absolutely, that is, without any noun which it governs, is, according to this translation, improperly limited to God. David simply means, that the ungodly, without examination, permit themselves to do any thing, or do not distinguish between what is lawful and unlawful, because their own lust is their law, yea, rather, as if superior to all laws, they fancy that it is lawful for them to do whatever they please. The beginning of well-doing in a man’s life is inquiry; in other words, we can only begin to do well when we keep ourselves from following, without choice and discrimination, the dictates of our own fancy, and from being carried away by the wayward propensities of our flesh. But the exercise of inquiring proceeds from humility, when we assign to God, as is reasonable, the place of judge and ruler over us. The prophet, therefore, very properly says, that the reason why the ungodly, without any regard or consideration, presume to do whatever they desire, is because, being lifted up with pride, they leave to God nothing whatever of the prerogative of a judge. The Hebrew word פף, aph, which we have translated countenance, I have no doubt is here taken in its proper and natural signification, and not metaphorically for anger; because haughty persons show their effrontery even by their countenance.
In the second clause, the prophet more severely, or, at least, more openly, accuses them, declaring that all their wicked imaginations show that they have no God. All his devices say, There is no God (200) By these words I understand, that through their heaven-daring presumption, they subvert all piety and justice, as if there were no God sitting in heaven. Did they truly believe that there is a God, the fear of the judgment to come would restrain them. Not that they plainly and distinctly deny the existence of a God, but then they strip him of his power. Now, God would be merely like an idol, if, contented with an inactive existence, he should divest himself of his office as judge. Whoever, therefore, refuse to admit that the world is subject to the providence of God, or do not believe that his hand is stretched forth from on high to govern it, do as much as in them lies to put an end to the existence of God. It is not, however, enough to have some cold and unimpressive knowledge of him in the head; it is only the true and heartfelt conviction of his providence which makes us reverence him, and which keeps us in subjection (201) to him. The greater part of interpreters understand the last clause as meaning generally, that all the thoughts of a wicked man tend to the denial of a God. In my opinion, the Hebrew word מזמות, mezimmoth, is here, as in many other places, taken in a bad sense for cunning and wicked thoughts, (202) so that the meaning, as I have noticed already, is this: Since the ungodly have the hardihood to devise and perpetrate every kind of wickedness, however atrocious, it is from this sufficiently manifest, that they have cast off all fear of God from their hearts.
(200) The sentence in the Hebrew text is elliptical, and hence it has been variously translated. Literally it is, “No God all his thoughts.” The Syriac version renders it, “There is no God in all his thoughts.” The Septuagint reads, Οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ θεὸς ἐνώπιον αὐτου, “God is not before him.” Mudge renders it, “No God is all his wicked politics;” Horsley, “No God is the whole of his philosophy.” and Fry, “There is no Elohim is all his thought.”
(201) “ Qui nous le fait avoir en reverence et nous tient le subjets.” — Fr.
(202) “ Pour meschantes et malicieuses pensees.” — Fr. “Wicked and malicious thoughts.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE ATHEISM OF PRIDEEVOLUTION
Psa 10:4
THE custom of selecting severe texts with which to sting ones intellectual opponents is hardly praiseworthy, if even it be pardonable. I should treat this text with more pleasure if it did not open with the words the wicked, since I am not at all disposed to bring any moral railing against the men whose new religion is so plain a departure from the old paths. But, not believing in the right of the individual to either make Scripture to suit himself or even change it into acceptable terms, I must take the text as I find it and treat it in the light of our themeThe Atheism of PrideEvolution.
The reasons for its selection will appear as we progress with this discussion. Beyond doubt, the intelligent traveler takes note, not alone of the character of the path his feet may be treading, but inquires deliberately, Whither?
I was lost once in the deep woods of Northern Minnesota. I spent weary hours in a footsore journey; groped my way through the blackest night I have ever known, and faced all the while the fury of storm and rain, and it all came about in consequence of taking a path that looked attractive but led me astray. This experience is a parable, and raises the question, Whither does this evolutionary path tend?
Turning back to the text and ignoring its opening indictment, I call attention to the points of parallelism between the remaining portions and that now popular theory known as Evolution. There are three: Pride of Intellect, Practical Irreligion, and Potential Atheism.
PRIDE OF INTELLECT
The wicked through the pride of his countenance. The word countenance here refers not so much to the pride some people have in beholding themselves in a mirror, as it suggests and symbolizes self-esteem. Joseph Parker says, It refers literally to the heightening of the nostril, the lifting of the head.
In the study of this suggestion, therefore, three important points at which the pride of intellect now expresses itself.
This century is seeing a revival of the original temptation. When Satan tempted our first mother to disobedience, he did it by the subtle promise of wisdom. Then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was * * a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat. Beyond all doubt, there is a progress in the temptation recorded in Genesis. The first appeal was to the lust of the flesh, good for food; the second to the lust of the eye, pleasant to the eyes; the third to the pride of life, a tree to be desired to make one wise, and it was at this third point that Satan reached the acme of his machinations! Great as is the temptation in the lust of the flesh, subtle as is the entreaty of pleasure for the eye, more powerful still is the appeal in the prospect of wisdom!
Each century in turn adopts a shibboleth and yields willing obedience to the ideal thereby expressed. The Twentieth Century has chosen Scholarship and that word has become both its religion and its god. In Germany they may name it Kultur; in England they may call it Science; in America they may phrase it Scholarship, but in each country it represents the same claim, namely, Wisdom is with us!
This conceit is described by one writer as a result of the invention of certain mechanical contrivances for abolishing time and space and expresses an inordinate but unjustifiable vanity. Practically every book now written by a modernist is big with such phrases as The sure results of science, The scholarship of the century, The intellectual attainments of the times, the fine products of university education, the wondrous wisdom of the day, etc. It is a contagious claim and intellectually anemic men are particularly subject to the infection. One sound reason for the most thorough education exists at this point. Men of mediocre endowment or only partial training are particularly tempted at this point! This accounts for the false claims of classical learning where little or none of the same exists, the frenzied endeavor to secure literary degrees where no merit warrants the granting of the same, the keen candidacy for college and university professorships without peculiar fitness, and the impetuous rush to the printing press with every immature or amateur expression of thought! Satan has again triumphed and has taken us with ease by the hint, Be wise!
Science is now the subtle word of Satanic employment. It is a word that expresses the idea I know and so sums up in a single term the conceit of the age. To immature minds, Science, as now employed, seems to be synonymous with Omniscience. To call a thing scientific is, in the judgment of such deceived ones, to establish it forever. That may account for the fact that we no longer have books on Biology, on History, on Philosophy, on Religion, but we are taught the Science of Biology, the Science of History, the Science of Philosophy, the Science of Religion, and we have so far converted this word into a mere mental commodity that a designing woman employs it for purely commercial purposes by calling her mental vaporings Christian Science, and multitudes are deceived thereby.
We have had books written recently on The Descent of Man. We are sadly in need of a volume on The Degradation of Words, and central in that discussion would be the strange and unjustifiable uses to which this word Science is now being subjected. O! great and good word! but so bandied about by designing men as to be, like its Master, marred past recognition! What crimes against intelligence are committed in thy name oh Science! This also is Satans work!
The prospect of becoming gods is still a potent appeal. Ye shall be as gods. No wonder our first mother went down before it! No wonder our first father fell for it! Nor is it any wonder their children (born not only in this sin, but of it) should surrender at the same point.
I was present a few days since in an evangelical ministers meeting, and heard a man decry the old philosophy that we are sinners as an idea wholly out of date, and as most unworthy our matchless, manly dignity. To his brethren he said, We are gods! Let us not forget the great Apostles teaching, Ye also are His offspring, forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to talk continuously in the terms of humility, but rather in those of self-appreciation and praise!
The speaker evidently forgot two things: 1st, that Paul was quoting from heathen poets when he made that declaration, and second, that when certain men at Lystra, seeing a miracle wrought at his hands upon an impotent one, brought oxen and garlands and would have done sacrifice to Barnabas as Jupiter and Paul as Mercury, they rent their clothes and ran in among the people, crying out, Why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein (Act 14:11-15).
A few years since, when Reginald Campbell attained the zenith of public attention by the explosion of his own faith, we paid much heed to what he had to say; now that he has fallen back to the nadir of obscurity we are like to forget his pretentious claims, My God is my deeper self!
Nietzsche, who in the judgment of Prof. Williams of Oxford, was the greatest exponent of evolution known to the age, said, Egoism is the prime characteristic of the noble soul!
If the Pharisee of the New Testament who went into the Temple to pray, were alive now, he would receive the commendation of all evolutionists and be an accepted leader among the New .Theologians. The superman, prophesied by so-called modern science, is nothing more nor less than a repetition of Satans garden triumph, and again the sons of Adam are delighting themselves in the taste of forbidden fruit, tempted to it by the lie, Ye shall be as gods.
Passing from the first sentence of the text to the second, we go from cause to effect. It may be properly phrased
PRACTICAL IRRELIGION
He will not seek God! The whole tendency of evolution takes one away from faith in God and in the end, even denies the fact of God.
The theory proposes to explain all things apart from God. Henry Van Dyke, in The Gospel for an Age of Doubt, institutes a comparison between the genealogy of man as recorded in Lukes Gospel, and that created by evolution. He admits having reduced Lyman Abbotts description of the descent, but says, I have retained its every essential, and then recites: Monera begat Amoebae, Amoebae begat Synamoebae; Synamoebae begat Ciliated Larve; Ciliated Larva begat Primeval Stomach Animals; Primeval Stomach Animals begat Gliding Worms; Gliding Worms begat soft Worms; Soft Worms begat Sack Worms; Sack Worms begat Skull-less Animals; Skull-less Animals begat Single-Nostrilled Animals; Single Nostrilled Animals begat Primeval Fish; Primeval Fish begat Mud Fish; Mud Fish begat Gilled Amphibians; Gilled Amphibians begat Tailed Amphibians; Tailed Amphibians begat Primeval Amniota; Primeval Amniota begat Primary Mammals; Primary Mammals begat Pouched Animals; Pouched Animals begat Semi-Apes; Semi-Apes begat Tailed Apes; Tailed Apes begat Man-like Apes; Man-like Apes begat Ape-like Men; Ape-like Men begat Men. And now the Dean of a Divinty School completes the chain by the inclusion of Jesus!
I do not wonder that you smile, nor yet that you hold such a suggestion in ridicule and contempt, but I ask you to pause before it long enough to compare it with the origin of man as recorded in the Blessed Book.
And Jesus Himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,
Which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Janna, which was the son of Joseph,
Which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Amos, which was the son of Naum, which was the son of Esli, which was the son of Nagge,
Which was the son of Maath, which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Semei, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Juda,
Which was the son of Joanna, which was the son of Rhesa, which was the son of Zorobabel, which was the son of Salathiel, which was the son of Neri,
Which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Addi, which was the son of Cosam, which was the son of Elmodam, which was the son of Er,
Which was the son of Jose, which was the son of Elieser, which was the son of Jorim, which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi,
Which was the son of Simeon, which was the son of Juda, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Jonan, which was the son of Eliakim,
Which was the son of Melea, which was the son of Menan, which was the son of Matthatha, which was the son of Nathan, which was the son of David,
Which was the son of Jesse, which was the son of Obed, which was the son of Boas, which was the son of Salmon, which was the son of Naasson,
Which was the son of Aminadab, which was the son of Aram, which was the son of Esrom, which was the son of Phares, which was the son of Juda,
Which was the son of Jacob, which was the son of Isaac, which was the son of Abraham, which was the son of Thara, which was the son of Nachor,
Which was the son of Saruch, which was the son of Ragau, which was the son of Phalec, which was the son of Heber, which was the son of Sala,
Which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Sent, which was the son of Noe, which was the son of Larnech,
Which was the son of Mathusala, which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of Maleleel, which was the son of Cainan,
Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God (Luk 3:23-38),
The first of these trees makes man the product of a blind force, named spontaneous generation, and gives him an animal ancestry; the second makes him the creature and child of The Most High.
Without now attempting to settle which is the saner expression or which holds the more certain truth, I cite them to prove the absolute correctness of the text, namely, The evolutionist will not acknowledge God!
The appeal of evolution is to worship creation vs. the creator. Kant, whose philosophy conformed with the Darwin theory, acknowledged no allegiance to a personal Creator, but confessed that he felt a reverence approaching worship for the starry heavens above and the inner consciousness of man, or in other words, for the creation and creature, but none whatever for the Creator. In fact the existence of a Creator is practically denied. Science is everywhere using impersonal ideas in explaining the universe. * * The idea of creation has been merged in the vaguer conceptions of evolution, says Gerald Birney Smith, the evolutionist professor of Chicago University.
Once more the modernist has returned to the old pagan pantheism, and speaks of God as a spirit working within the cosmos. Prof. McGiffert and other evolutionists, tell us that the Divine is no more separate and aloof. It is within and organic with the human, and further remark, God is considered as the soul of the world; the spirit animating nature; the universal force which takes the myriad forms of heat, light, gravity, electricity and the like. If, therefore, these men are correct, the ancient heathen who worshipped the sun, moon and stars really bowed before the only god, and for that matter, the modern heathen who worships wood, stones and even serpents is still worshipping some expression of the only god there is. To say that such a god is not the God of the Christian, and that he is thoroughly unknown to Biblical conceptions, is to state a spiritual axiom.
The evolution-propaganda promotes both these procedures. To the evolutionist, Christianity is little more sacred than any ancient Greek cult. Matthew Arnold, while professing to find in Christ the Light of the World, was a modernist with all its implications, and in one of his poems he writes:
Forgive me, masters of the mind,
At whose behest I long ago
So much unlearned, so much resigned;
I come not here to be your foe;
I seek these anchorites, not in truth,
To curse and to deny your truth;
Not as their friend, or child, I speak,
But as on some far northern strand,
Thinking of his own gods, a Greek,
In pity and mournful awe might stand
Before a fallen Runic stone,
For both were faiths, and both are gone.
What then is the conclusion of the whole matter, other than that which is expressed in the last sentence of our text
POTENTIAL ATHEISM?
God is not in all their thoughts.
The greater exponents of evolution have been unbelievers. If we thought anyone would attempt to debate this we would call the roll, quote from their writings and prove the statement. I am not saying these men have no god; I am saying that few of them recognize the God of the Bible, or regard the teachings of that Book as final and authoritative.
They might resent being called atheists but under the most favorable conditions could not claim to be Christian believers. One wonders if that is not a prime reason why their so-called sciences remain mere speculations, hypotheses, theories, and no more. One cannot escape the conviction that no man can come into any light who does not walk in His light and in the light of the Word. Has it ever occurred to you that all the fixed sciences, about which men no longer debate, were discovered and proven and exploited by believers? The Copernican theory of the Universe is no longer a controversy; but Copernicus while a Papist, was an ardent believer in both God and His Book, and the very breath of his childhood was that of the bishops house. Kepler, in his early days, was a theological student whose scientific tendencies and attainments triumphed over his Gospel ministry, but were exercised in the same unfaltering faith and Kepler found in science the thoughts of God. Galileo, the father of physics, while suffering from the church, remained faithful, as he believed, to the God of the Bible and the Bible of God. Sir Isaac Newton, whose theories were long since changed into certainties, was the step-son of a preacher, a patron and preacher of the faith once for all delivered. Henry Van Dyke says, We observe in those departments of science where the knowledge of the magnitude and splendid order of the physical universe is most clear and exact, the most illustrious men have not been skeptics but sincere and steadfast believers, and then he gives a list of the most brilliant mathematicians ever assembled and says they were believers, every one.
I am inclined to think that their Science was accurate because they were believers. The light is with Him. How strange that not only were established sciences discovered every one by believers, but even the opinions of such later believers, working in the scientific realm, as Sir. James and Alexander Simpson, George Stokes, Lord Kelvin, Pasteur, and their like, when contrasted with the pure suppositions and speculations of a skeptical Darwin, a doubting La Marcke, an unbelieving Spencer, an agnostic Huxley, a monist Haeckel, and a Rationalist Weismann, are comparative certainties.
At this moment Mendelism gives every promise of proving its contentions and forcing science to accept the creative theory of Genesisto each seed it is given to bring forth after its kind, and Gregor Mendel was a godly monk.
Converts to the theory of evolution are almost without exception destructive critics. Those ministers who have received this Darwinian supposition and dared to believe it a science, make up today a school of men who, not only disturb the churches of God, papist and evangelical alike, but are the very men who are denying the veracity of the Book, disputing the Virgin Birth and Deity of Jesus, demanding that God be no longer an autocrat, but accept His position in a democracyin fact, practically attempting His dethronement. When they become professors in universities and theological seminaries, their influence is a bitter fruit. O. B. Server, in The Bible Champion cites many instances in proof of this position. In one theological seminary a certain young student had invited ten of his fellows to come to his room for a prayer-meeting. Not one of them accepted, and the last one exclaimed, Pray! I havent anyone to pray to! Those who have quit these seminaries and at the same time disclaimed their call to preach and deliberately accepted other callings of professions, are a legion and in every instance it was due to what they received from instructors, who were Darwin devotees.
My former associate in the ministry, was in a class of sixteen. He sat at the feet of Prof. Douglas Macintosh, now famed as a Yale theological professor, and widely known as a new theologian and evolutionist. Eight of the sixteen accepted his evolutionary hypothesis and went with him the length of all its conclusions. The entire eight left the ministry. The other eight of the class repudiated it, and that half now represent an effective preaching force.
It is reported (on one of our mission fields) a Union Christian College (so-called) sent out twenty-six graduates. One of them went into the ministry and twenty-five relapsed into the dark unfaith of heathenism.
A young woman teacher in the public schools and a valued church worker, went to Chicago University to study to fit herself for her vocation. That was the end of her church usefulness, and Mr. Server says, She seemed to have attended a slaughter house of faith and a morgue of piety.
I could, out of personal observation, cite scores of instances, met in my travels across the continent, of young men and women who have pitifully reported to me the waning of their faith and the wreck of their ministry through the acceptance of the evolutionary theory. Is it any wonder when their theological professors, following this philosophy, have affirmed in their presence, In the light of our comparative historical study, any claim to exclusiveness and incomparableness on the part of Christianity, as a positive religion, must be entirely abandoned.
Some of these instructors have sought to quiet the fears and assuage the griefs of parents, bereft by the unbelief of their children, saying, We teach here theistic evolution! It is a poor sop which, as Prof. George McCready Price justly says, is in its essential nature as thoroughly pagan or heathen as anything that ever grew up in Greece or India.
Then let us come to the conclusion of the whole matter.
The entire tendency of this theory is to atheism. Multitudes of its followers will not admit so much. They maintain they have a god. Possibly the god of a Huxley, unknown and unknowable; possibly the god of Haeckel, an insentient force, unconsciously framing and finishing; possibly the god of a Coe, a Rauschenbusch, a Frank Crane, who has played the aristocrat long enough and must now descend to his proper place in a democracy; but to this whole company, the God of the Bible is unknown. He is not in all their thoughts, and their attempt to rule Him out is no longer even disguised.
On their own confession, the authority of our faith has perished, and the sacred convictions of past centuries have been swept forever away. They no longer believe in our God; they no longer believe in an infallible Bible; they no longer believe in the Virgin Birth of Christ or any other essential feature of His Deity; they hold to ridicule the personality and power of the Holy Ghost; they define regeneration as adolescence; they reduce evangelization to social uplift; they think of mission work in terms of international commerce and educational opportunity; they look upon the church as a mere medium of financing their evolutionary program! The sacred codes of Scripture are to them only social conceptions strengthened by some centuries of practice; marriage is a domestic convenience, but holds no moral obligations; the Sabbath is little less than a social nuisance, and sobriety, imposed by law, violates every principle of that progressive theory, The survival of the fittest.
What will be the final result? You say, No man can forecast it. Any intelligent man can rehearse it! There is nothing new under the sun. One hundred fifty years ago France disposed of the true church, massacring Protestants in multitudes; 150 years ago France repudiated the Bible; 150 years ago France dethroned God and impersonating Human Reason, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, in a street strumpet, rid itself of all the restraints with which the Bible had ever sought to bind it. Then what? Then, as one has said, Her flourishing manufacturing cities fell into decay; her fertile districts returned to native wildness; a period of moral and intellectual decadence ensued and the whole nation plunged by a swift descent to the bloody abyss of the revolution by the way of anarchy, ruin and the Reign of Terror .
Think you it will be different this time? I tell you, Nay! The doctrine of Charles Darwin, in proportion as it dominates the future, the biological theory of evolution to the extent of its final acceptance, will make the recent baptism of blood, brought on by Nietzsche and Treitschke under the domination of that biological theory, as compared with the baptism yet to come, as a local shower to the flood that will prevail over every mountain.
The survival of the fittest is a soft sounding phrase, but when it is interpreted in the light of the struggle for existence, it becomes a startling menace. Fill a nation with the German conceit that We are the superior race, and all the women of weaker nations are our natural prey, and the men of such nations our legitimate servants, and you turn the world into a slaughter house, and as one has said, There is no logic to show why such a code of international ruffianism is wrong or at all blameworthy if the evolution theory be true. Its premises granted, an Armageddon is the result. I am no alarmist, but I am not blind! The triumph of Darwinism will introduce the day of the Great Tribulation!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
(4) The wicked.The Authorised Version has quite missed the meaning of this verse. Translate, the wicked in his haughtiness (literally, height of his nostril. Comp. the common expression, to turn up ones nose at a person) saith He will not requite it (i.e., punish; comp. Psa. 10:13). There is no God in all his thought. (Comp. Psa. 14:1; Psa. 53:1.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Will not seek He takes no pains to inquire if there be a God, or a moral government which holds men accountable.
Thoughts Devices, schemes. In all his plans he makes no account or recognition of God.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 10:4. The wicked, &c. The wicked in the haughtiness of his looks saith, God will never {require: / inquire:} all his thoughts are without God. The Psalmist in this verse has given us the true character of the ungodly of this world. By a long disuse of devotion, and open neglect of divine worship, he gradually forgets every duty that he owes his Maker: and when he has for some time habituated himself to live without God in the world, he then begins to doubt his very existence; he then begins to forget that in him we live and move, and have our being. See Delaney.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 504
MENS PROUD CONTEMPT OF GOD
Psa 10:4-5. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts: his ways are always grievous: thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.
PRIDE, when manifested in a flagrant manner, universally excites disgust; so hateful is it, when divested of the specious garb in which it is generally clothed. But though all hate pride, when it appears in others, few are sensible how much it reigns within their own bosoms. In our converse with man, this evil disposition is ready to shew itself on every occasion: but in our conduct towards God, it is the fruitful parent of habitual neglect, and atheistical contempt. This is affirmed in the passage before us, in which we may notice,
I.
The state of the wicked
It is not easy to conceive a more humiliating description of their character than that given us by the Psalmist:
They will not seek after God
[God invites them to seek his face, and promises that he will be found of them; but they cannot be prevailed upon either by promises or threats: they will seek with eagerness an earthly object, that may make them happy; but they account God unworthy of any notice or regard [Note: Job 35:10.].]
He is not even admitted into their thoughts
[It is astonishing to what a degree men often banish God from their minds. They will pass days, months, and even years, without one reverential thought of him, unless when they are alarmed by some awful providence, or awakened by some faithful discourse: and then, unless the grace of God prevent them, they will cast him out of their minds again as soon as possible, and drown their thoughts in business or dissipation [Note: Job 21:14-15.].]
They account his ways, as far as they know them, grievous
[When urged to devote themselves to God in sincerity and truth, they conceive that such a state is unattainable, or, at least, incompatible with the common duties and offices of life. They call the indulgence of their lusts, liberty; and the exercise of vital godliness, an intolerable bondage. Every part of the divine life is irksome to them, and that too, not occasionally, but always, without any change or intermission.]
The judgments of God are far above out of their sight
[By the judgments of God we understand his word and works. Now these are not only out of their sight in some particulars (for in some respects they are incomprehensible even to the most enlightened saints) but they are altogether foolishness unto them [Note: 1Co 2:14.]. When the mysteries of redemption are opened, they are esteemed by them as cunningly-devised fables: and when the marvellous interpositions of Providence are insisted on, they are ready to exclaim, with Ezekiels hearers, Ah! Lord God, doth he not speak parables [Note: Eze 20:49.]?]
As for all their enemies, they puff at them
[If God himself threaten them as an enemy, they disregard his menaces. The denunciations of his wrath are deemed by them unworthy of any serious attention. They even puff at them with contempt and disdain. They quiet all their fears, saying, like them of old, Tush, God shall not see; neither will the Almighty regard it [Note: Psa 94:7.]: I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart [Note: Deu 29:19.].]
In order to account for this state of things, let us trace it to,
II.
The real source of their wickedness
We might trace this practical atheism to mens ignorance and unbelief: but the Psalmist suggests to us the true ground and occasion of it: it all arises from the pride of their hearts.
Men are too good, in their own apprehension, to need Gods mercy
[They will confess that they are not altogether so good as they might be; but they do not think they deserve Gods wrath and indignation. Why then should they trouble themselves to ask for mercy at his hands, when they are in no danger of suffering his judgments?]
They are also too strong to need his aid
[They imagine, that they can repent when they please, and that, whensoever they resolve, they can easily carry their resolutions into effect. If they thought that without God they could do nothing, and that he must give them both to will and to do, then there were reason for imploring his assistance: but, when they acknowledge no such dependence upon God, wherefore should they seek his aid?]
Moreover, they are too wise to need the teachings of his Spirit
[They see, perhaps, their need of a revelation to discover to them the mind and will of God; but, when that is once given, they are not conscious that they need a spiritual illumination to discover the truths contained in it. They suppose their reason to be as sufficient for the investigation of spiritual, as of carnal things: and under that persuasion, they consider all application to God for the teachings of his Spirit, as enthusiastic and absurd.]
Finally, they are too happy to need the divine presence
[They are occupied with carnal pleasure, and wish for nothing beyond it. If only they can have the undisturbed indulgence of their appetites, it is, to them, all the Paradise they desire. As for the light of Gods countenance, and the manifestations of his love, they know not what is meant by such things; they suppose that they exist only in the pretensions of hypocrites, and the conceits of fanatics.
In short, like those of Laodicea, they possess such an imaginary sufficiency within themselves, that they have no need of God at all [Note: Rev 3:17.]. And hence it is that they care not to have God in all their thoughts.]
Infer
1.
How astonishing is the depravity of human nature!
[If all be not equally addicted to gross sins, all are equally without God in the world [Note: Eph 2:12.]: all have a carnal mind that is enmity against God [Note: Rom 8:7.]. Alas! What a picture of human nature! Let every mouth then be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God [Note: Rom 3:10-12; Rom 3:19.].]
2.
How great is the change that takes place in conversion!
[The state of a converted soul forms a perfect contrast with that of the wicked. Old things pass away, and all things become new. Let all then ask themselves, Am I now devoting myself to God, as once I did to the world; and despising the world, as once I despised God? This were indeed a new creation [Note: 2Co 5:17.].]
3.
How necessary is conversion in order to an enjoyment of heaven!
[There must be within ourselves a meetness for heaven before we can enjoy it [Note: Col 1:12.]. Let not those then who banish God from their thoughts, and cast off his yoke, suppose that they could be happy in heaven, even if they were admitted there. If they would find happiness in God for ever, they must attain in this world a conformity to his image, and a delight in his commandments.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Here the picture of the ungodly is finished, and an awful finishing it is. Hatred to God, despising his laws, his ways, his judgments; and, more especially, a bitterness towards that plan of salvation by his Son, which is the wisdom of God, in a mystery: here the malignity of the ungodly most violently manifests itself. And what I would more particularly desire the Reader to remark with me in these observation is, that all this is directed against the person and offices of the Lord Jesus. Here it was the malignity of the serpent first broke out; and here it is that his seed most pointedly show the bitterness of their hatred. So that in the reading of this Psalm, we cannot overlook the interest that Christ hath in it, in what so eminently belongs to the hatred his seed suffer from their connection with him. Precious Jesus! if they called the master of the house Beelzebub, well may they so call them of his household.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 10:4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek [after God]: God [is] not in all his thoughts.
Ver. 4. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance ] That is, of his heart, appearing in his countenance, as a master pock in his forehead. For pride buddeth, Eze 7:10 ; the pride of Israel testifieth to his face, Hos 5:5 ; the thoughts are oft seen in the countenance; and the heart is printed upon the face, Isa 3:9 . It is a hard thing, saith one, to have a brazen face and a broken heart.
Will not seek
God is not in all his thoughts
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
God. Hebrew. Elohim. i.e. “no sign of God in all his thoughts”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the pride: Psa 18:27, Psa 101:5, Pro 6:17, Pro 21:4, Pro 30:13, Isa 2:11, Isa 3:9
will not: Psa 14:2, Psa 27:8, Exo 5:2, Deu 8:14, Job 22:17, Pro 30:9, Jer 2:31, Dan 5:22, Dan 5:23, Zep 2:3
God: etc. or, all his thoughts are, There is no God, Psa 14:1, Psa 53:1, Eph 2:12
thoughts: Gen 6:5, Isa 59:7, Isa 65:2, Jer 4:14, Mar 7:21, Act 8:22, Rom 1:21, Rom 1:28
Reciprocal: Deu 29:19 – that he bless Job 8:13 – that forget God Job 21:14 – they say Psa 50:22 – forget Psa 53:2 – seek Psa 86:14 – and have Psa 119:155 – for they Psa 140:5 – The proud Jer 43:2 – all the Hos 7:10 – nor Hos 13:6 – therefore Zep 1:6 – and those Zep 3:2 – she drew Mal 3:16 – that thought Mat 7:7 – seek Mar 7:22 – pride Luk 15:13 – and took 2Co 10:5 – and every 1Ti 6:17 – that they
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 10:4. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance By which he scorns to stoop to God, or to own any superior, but makes himself his last end, and his own will and lust his only rule; and is full of self-confidence and a conceit of his own self-sufficiency and permanent felicity. He says the pride of his countenance, because, though pride be properly seated in the heart, yet it is manifested in the countenance; will not seek after God
Will not seek and inquire into the mind and will of God, that he may order his life according thereto, so as to please God; nor will he seek to him by prayer for his favour and blessing. The words, after God, however, are not in the Hebrew, and may be omitted, and then the sense will be, He will not search, or consider, namely, his actions; will not trouble himself to inquire whether they be just or unjust, pleasing or offensive to God; but, without any care or consideration, rushes into sin, and does whatever seems right in his own eyes. God is not in all his thoughts He hath no serious thought of, nor regard to, God, or his word, which ought to govern him, nor his threats or judgments, which should keep him in awe. Or, as the Hebrew may be rendered, All his thoughts are, There is no God, namely, no such God as minds the affairs of the world and the actions of men, or that punishes sinners. The psalmist hath here given us the true character of an ungodly man. By a long disuse of devotion, and open neglect of divine worship, he gradually forgets every duty he owes his Maker; and when he has for some time habituated himself to live without God in the world, he then begins to doubt his very existence; he then begins to forget that in him we live, and move, and have our being. See Dodd and Delaney.