Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 36:9
For with thee [is] the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.
9. The expectation of Psa 36:8 is no idle dream, for God is the source of life and light. From Him springs all that constitutes life (Psa 34:12), physical and spiritual (cp. Jer 2:13; Jer 17:13): from Him proceeds all that makes up true happiness (cp. Psa 4:6). Golden sayings like this anticipate the revelation of the Gospel. It is only in the light of the Incarnation that their depth of meaning begins to be understood. Cp. Joh 1:4; Joh 1:9.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For with thee is the fountain of life – The fountain or source from which all life flows. All living beings derive their origin from thee, as streams flow from fountains; all that is properly called life proceeds from thee; everything which makes life real life – which makes it desirable or happy – has its origin in thee. The psalmist evidently meant here to include more than mere life considered as animated existence. He recalls what he had referred to in the previous verses – the various blessings which proceeded from the mercy and loving-kindness of God, and which were attendant on his worship; and he here says that all this – all that makes man happy – all that can properly be regarded as life – proceeds from God. Life literally, in man and in all animated beings; life spiritually; life here, and life hereafter – all is to be traced to God.
In thy light shall we see light – As thou art the Source of light, and all light proceeds from thee, so we shall be enabled to see light, or to see what is true, only as we see it in thee. By looking to thee; by meditating on thy character; by a right understanding of thyself; by being encompassed with the light which encompasses thee, we shall see light on all those great questions which perplex us, and which it is so desirable that we should understand. It is not by looking at ourselves; it is not by any human teaching; it is not by searching for information away from thee, that we can hope to have the questions which perplex us solved; it is only by coming to thyself, and looking directly to thee. There is no other source of real light and truth but God; and in the contemplation of himself, and of the light which encompasses him, and in that alone, can we hope to comprehend the great subjects on which we pant so much to be informed. All away from God is dark; all near him is light. If, therefore, we desire light on the subjects which pertain to our salvation, it must be sought by a direct and near approach to him; and the more we can lose ourselves in the splendors of his throne, the more we shall understand of truth. Compare 1Jo 1:5; Rev 21:23; Rev 22:5; 1Pe 2:9.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 36:9
For with Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy light shall we see light.
Life and light
We think of Easter as the festival of the defeat of death: it is no less the festival of the glory of life. It is one of the many proofs that God desires and loves our health and not our sickness, our happiness and not our misery. From many causes, chief of all, the sin of the age, we habitually take too unfavourable and too unthankful a view of our mortal life. The cynic, the worldling, the noted profligate, the unreal Christian, seem to assume as an axiom that life is an unmitigated evil, and that it is only to be got through because we must, and as best we can. And even good men complain of life. But God hears and bears with it all, even as the mother forgives the fretfulness of her child. Christians should never cherish dark views. If we have them, remember they are not Christian, and they are mainly due to our own faults. I do not wish to indulge a weak optimism. I know the outward lives of many are dull and humble, and mush be so, but what I would fain show you is that the externals of life are not life, and that aa far as all the glorious essentials of life are concerned, you may still be blessed above all that this world can give. I do not shut my eyes to the reality of evil, but I still say that the sentiment of the bitter, worldly poet, Know that whatever thou hast been, tis something bitter not to be, is a false and un-Christian sentiment. Almost all of us make too much of the few great woes of life, and too little of the multitude of its innocent pleasures. See these mortal bodies–how adapted to our needs. Think of how much of good attends each period of life from infancy to old age. Pessimists commiserate the lot of old age. So does not Scripture. It says that a hoary head is a crown of glory if found in the way of righteousness. Would you be young again? So would not I. A beautiful and peaceful ago in its calm and wisdom may be as the sunset to the day. And here God overrules our trials for good so that trials really become mercies. Look, then, hopefully, thankfully at life. It is not life which ruins man: it is man which ruins life. And too many do this, so that their life has not been as God meant it to be, but as a mirage of the deceitful wilderness, a ruin lost in mud and sand. The man has been a martyr of Satan, and not of God. But Christ would fain glorify our life. The secret of life, the secret of felicity is with Him or nowhere. But it is with Him, and it is for them that fear Him. It transfigures the world of Nature, making it the very autograph of His love. And God has given to us art, literature, science, appealing not to the senses but to the soul. How great are the pleasures of the mind: and yet more those of the moral nature, and the spirit of man is capable of joys more transcendent still; unattainable, indeed, apart from Christ, but in Him, open to us all. Think of but two of them, Hope and Love. How love transfigures life. Do we not know it, all of us, and many by blessed experience? And what is Easter for if it be not to teach us life? It is thus, then, that Christ gives us light, and that in His light we see light. (Dean Farrar.)
The fountain of life
I. Illustrate the doctrine of the text. As waters in a fountain are continually rising up and flowing forth, so life in God is naturally springing up, and ceaselessly overflowing. Life natural, intellectual, spiritual. Life in its simplest and life in its sublimest forms. Thought carries us back to the infinite past when nought but God was. So it might have remained and the happiness of God none the less. But it pleased Him to manifest His glory by creation. First the heavens, then the earth, then the tribes of-animated nature, all that roam in the forest, or swim the sea. Then man was created, as completing the chain of natural life, and at the same time connecting this world with others, that may be the sphere of intellectual and spiritual existence. Thus has the Fount of living waters filled this lower world with streams of life–and ever since the memorable days of creation–from Him have those streams flowed on, supplying all that is necessary for the unbroken succession, and whatever the form of life, however glorious, however beneficent, to God man is indebted for them all. But the highest life is the spiritual, the life of God in the soul. Now, man had this at the first, but lost it by sin, yet receives it back again through Christ.
II. Improve it,
1. Let the Fountain of all life have the glory due to His name.
2. Let the powers of natural and intellectual life, which we have received, be dedicated to the Author of them. Let all we have be devoted to the Lord who gave them. But the subject comes home to us also with all the force of Gospel obligation. The Redeemer of our life says also, Ye are not your own.
3. Especially let spiritual life be sought from God, the fountain of life.
4. Let believers rejoice in hope of the time when spiritual life shall be perfected. (I. Jacob.)
The fountain of life
I. The natural life. This is a noble gift, bestowed for noble purposes; our bodies are material, composed of matter, that is, of earthly substance; evidently made from the dust, as to the dust returning. Whence comes it, then, that one portion of matter should be gifted with life, and be endued with faculties which have a living power, whilst another portion lies dull and heavy and incapable, as it was originally created? The Church calls us to thank God for our creation: let us see that it be indeed a blessing.
II. From God is our providential life, the preservation of our existence; and when we consider the numberless casualties to which we are exposed, this preservation is one continued marvel, nothing less than the constant exercise of Gods almightiness on our behalf, by day and by night.
III. Our spiritual life can be derived only from the Father of spirits, from the God of the spirits of all flesh: our blessed Lord has placed this upon the clearest possible footing, that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
IV. There is another life which we profess to be seeking, another world to which we are on our journey; the very purpose and end of our present spiritual being. So says our blessed Lord, Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
V. Then In his light shall we see light. All the shadows of earthly imperfection will fly away before the sun of righteousness, which is the sun Of glory. And as He led Israel through the wilderness, by the pillar of a cloud and the pillar of fire, so will He, by the light of His Spirit and His Word, lead every humble obedient servant through the worlds wilderness, and bring them safely to the heavenly shore. (J. Slade, M.A.)
The fountain of life
We feel what life is better than we can define it. It is much more than existence. Life means unwearying vigour, full enjoyment, constant growth, abundant fruitfulness.
1. Alas, some have no life–no spiritual life; the physical, the intellectual, the social are there, vigorous enough; but there is death towards God. Lay hold of the life which is life indeed, writes Paul, and many a one has come to feel that even the best of life without God is not life indeed. A mans life consiteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Life cut off from God is but another name for death.
2. Some have deteriorated life. They have gone back. They are not what they were in their feelings towards Christ and His service. It is as when after months of severe physical strain we have no heart for anything; are tired of everything, and most of all of ourselves, and need to get away to some bracing mountain side to drink in new strength. As sudden torrents from the newly melted snows course down the half-empty channels of the plain, and sweep away the foul things gathered there, and waken into fragrance and vigour the drooping verdure on their banks, so the inrush to the soul of more life from the everlasting hills would sweep away our bad moods, and the fruits of holiness would once more deck our character.
3. And some have insufficient life. They thirst for more. Desire for more life is characteristic of the higher piety rather than of the lower. The more we have the more we want. The further we get in Divine things the more we have of dissatisfaction with present attainment, and of longing for higher. We read promises of a heritage we have not possessed. Would that all this–this larger, better, richer life were mine! And, intensifying that desire, we see that we are confronted by temptation, or work, or perhaps by sorrows, which need more life on our part than we have. The old life is not enough for these; we shall fall in the conflict, or fail in the task, or be crushed by the burden without more life. But more life!–we should override our difficulties then, and smite down our adversaries, our character and speech would be charged with a resistless inspiration, and we ourselves from walking, or even climbing, should mount up as on wings to those high places which are bathed in the full sunlight of Gods face. (Charles New.)
Being and well-being
Life and light are the greatest blessings of which we have any conception. All feel life to be valuable. What would life be without light? A world without light would be cold, dark and monotonous. God is the source of both.
I. He is the source of being. Fountain of life. The word fountain suggests–
1. Causation.
2. Plenitude.
3. Activity.
II. He is the source of well-being. He is the light–the blessedness of being. His revealed character is the light of the soul. Two things are necessary to make light a blessing–
1. A healthy visual faculty. If the eye of the soul is not sound, light may be a pain, a curse.
2. Beautiful objects of vision. If the eye is made to look upon the monstrous, and the horrific, light will be a bane. (Homilist.)
In Thy light shall we see light.—
God alone can reveal a God
Light has this property, that it is at once the vehicle and that which is borne by the vehicle: it is the revelation and its channel, and this twofold property of light remains the same whether we regard it as an actual emanation of particles, or only an undulation or vibration of some invisible ether itself at rest. And so with the revelation of God. No doubt He has revealed Himself by means of prophets, etc. (Heb 1:1-14.). But all such revelation was partial and incomplete; what the prophet saw or heard was only a glimpse of the real truth. Hence Christ was needed as the Revealer of God. And in like manner the Holy Spirit is the Revealer of Christ. (J. B. Heard, M. A.)
Light in Gods light
I. In the light of divine scripture we see light on human nature and on human life. Scripture contains Gods solution of mans pro-roundest mysteries. The light which earth could not supply has been revealed from above. The Scriptures are not only a revelation of God to man, they are a revelation of man to himself. In the light of Divine truth our mysteries are solved, or souls are quieted, we emerge out of the darkness to follow Him who is the Light of the world. We feel that we are not left to our own fancies, to the mere phantoms of our own imagination; but that over all, guiding all, and allowing us to note His ways, is the Divine care and guidance of the living God.
II. In the light of divine atonement we see the light of human salvation. Here is heavens cure of earths deep sorrows, Gods solution of earths blackest mystery.
III. In the light of divine promises we see light on human adversity and care. They assure us that every care is under Divine control, that every trial has its purpose, and that no burden too great shall ever rest upon our hearts.
IV. In the light of divine revelation we see light on human destiny. To unassisted man there is no darkness so dense as that which rests on the future. We cannot anticipate the conclusion of a single hour. But on this darkness there is light. If a man die we know he will live again; if a man die in Christ he shall live for ever with Christ. (W. H. King.)
In thy light of God
The picture in the mind of him who wrote this psalm is very clear. Men are looking for light. With that insatiable passion which belongs to their humanity, they are running hither and thither seeking to know. And he who writes is in true sympathy with their search. To him too light seems the most precious thing on earth. Knowledge appears to him the treasure which is most worth possessing. But it seems to him that there is something which needs to be suggested to these searchers after light. They appear to him to be questioning this thing and that thing, as if the secret of its being, its power to be understood and comprehended, the light with which it ought to shins, were something which it carried in itself. He sees things differently. To him everything is comprehensible and capable of being understood only as it exists within the great enfolding presence of God. The first thing for any man to do who wanted knowledge was to put himself under God, to make himself Gods man; because both he who wanted to know and that which he wanted to know had God for their true element, and were their best and did their best only as they lived in Him.
I. Four facts concerning human knowledge which confirm the doctrine of the psalm.
1. The constant sense of the essential unity of knowledge. Men study many things. Each man finds for a time contentment in his special science in the mastery of his peculiar facts; but as each man goes deeper into the knowledge of the chosen subject of his study, he becomes aware of how impossible it is for him to know that subject well, unless he knows far more than that. All truth makes one great whole; and no student of truth rightly masters his own special study unless he at least constantly remembers that it is only one part of the vast unity of knowledge, one strain in the universal music, one ray in the complete and perfect light.
2. A second fact with regard to human knowledge is its need of inspiration and elevation from some pure and spiritual purpose. It is a fact which is assured by all the testimony of mans experience of study, that, not upon the lower grounds of economy and the usefulness of knowledge to mans physical and social wants, but by some sense of a preciousness inherent in itself, of a fitness between it and the nature of man, of a glory in seeking it and a delight in finding it for its own pure sake, that only so have all the great revelations of truth come to mankind.
3. Another characteristic of the best search after wisdom is the way in which it awakens the sense of obedience. In other words, all of mans loftiest search for knowledge has always seemed to be aware, not merely of two parties to the great transaction, but also of a third–not merely of a knowledge to be sought and of a man to win it, but also of a knowledge-giver, who was to stand between the treasure and the needy human life, and give to the obedient humanity the boon it sought.
4. Closely allied to this fact is the other one which yet remains to be mentioned with regard to the search of man after knowledge, which is the constant tendency which it has always shown to connect itself with moral character. All the old initiations to the mysteries of knowledge bore knowledge to this instinct. The man to whom the deepest known secrets of things were to be opened to-morrow must be purified to-night by lustrations that should signify his inner baptism.
II. Is there no one conception in which these four convictions all unite, and in whose embrace they become not scattered discoveries or results of various experience, but parts of one complete idea which needs and which harmonizes them all? If it be true that in the thought of God most simply and broadly apprehended–in the thought, that is, of a great, strong, loving Father, who knows all truth, and loves all men, and feeds men with truth as a father feeds his children with bread, making them with each new food fit for a richer food which He has still to give them–these four conceptions find their meeting-place; if as the young light-seeker goes with these four convictions working together in his soul they almost necessarily seek one another and unite into what is at first the dream, and by and by becomes the faith of a personal presence, lofty, divine, loving and wise; if this is true, have we not reached as the result of all this long analysis something like that which David puts with such majestic simplicity in his glowing verse. The combination of these consciousnesses makes, almost of necessity, the consciousness of God. As they are necessary to the search for light, so is the God in whom they meet the true inspirer and helper of the eternal search. Look at the life of Jesus Christ. He knew the streets of Jerusalem and the lanes of Galilee and the history of His mysterious Hebrew people, and the hearts of the lilies and the souls of men; but He knew them all differently from the way in which the Hebrew scribes and scholars knew them. To Him they were all full of light. There is no other description of His knowledge that can tell its special and peculiar character like that. It was all full of light. It was full also of God. He knew everything as Gods child in Gods house. It was Gods light in which He saw the deeper light in everything. Picture Jesus of Nazareth set down in Rome with all the flashing splendour of imperial power all around him! or in Athens, with the wisdom of the philosophers on every side. Would the young Jew have cast his faith away? Too real for him the visions that had come to him in Nazareth! Too real for him the glory of His Father, which had filled His Fathers house! He would have laid fresh hold upon that truth and love which he had never so needed until now. He would have stood undazzled in the Roman glory, unpuzzled in the Grecian wisdom, because He would have known that in His heart He carried the light by which they should give light to Him. The knowledge of God lies behind everything, behind all knowledge, all skill, all life. That is the sum of the whole matter. The knowledge of God! And then there comes the great truth, which all religions have dimly felt, but which Christianity has made the very watchword of its life, the truth that it is only by the soul that God is really known; only by the experiences of the soul, only by penitence for sin, only by patient struggle after holiness, only by trust, by hope, by love does God make Himself known to man. So may He give us all the grace to know Him more and more. (Bp. Phillips Brook,.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. For with thee is the fountain of life] This, in Scripture phrase, may signify a spring of water; for such was called among the Jews living water, to distinguish it from ponds, tanks, and reservoirs, that were supplied by water either received from the clouds, or conducted into them by pipes and streams from other quarters. But there seems to be a higher allusion in the sacred text. ki immecha mekor chaiyim, “For with thee is the vein of lives.” Does not this allude to the great aorta, which, receiving the blood from the heart, distributes it by the arteries to every part of the human body, whence it is conducted back to the heart by means of the veins. As the heart, by means of the great aorta, distributes the blood to the remotest parts of the body; so, GOD, by Christ Jesus, conveys the life-giving streams of his providential goodness to all the worlds and beings he has created, and the influences of his grace and mercy to every soul that has sinned. All spiritual and temporal good comes from Him, the FATHER, through Him, the SON, to every part of the creation of God.
In thy light shall we see light.] No man can illuminate his own soul; all understanding must come from above. Here the metaphor is changed, and God is compared to the sun in the firmament of heaven, that gives light to all the planets and their inhabitants. “God said, Let there be light; and there was light; “by that light the eye of man was enabled to behold the various works of God, and the beauties of creation: so, when God speaks light into the dark heart of man, he not only beholds his own deformity and need of the salvation of God, but he beholds the “light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ;” “God, in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.” “In thy light shall we see light.” This is literally true, both in a spiritual and philosophical sense.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
With thee, i.e. in thy power to give it, and in thy presence to be enjoyed.
The fountain; which notes,
1. Causality. It is in God as in a fountain, and from him is derived to us.
2. Abundance.
3. Excellency. Water is sweetest in the fountain; and fountains were rare and highly prized in those hot countries.
Of life; of that glorious, and blessed, and endless life, which alone is worthy of the name of life; this life being only a passage to death, and a theatre of great and manifold calamities. Although it be true, that God is the fountain both of natural and spiritual life.
In thy light; in the light of thy countenance or glorious presence, which then shall be fully manifested unto us, when we shall see thee clearly, and face to face, and not through a glass, and darkly, as we now see, 1Co 13:12; compare Psa 17:15.
See, i.e. enjoy, as seeing frequently signifies; of which see on Psa 34:12. Light; the light of life, as it is called, Joh 8:12. Light in this branch being the same thing with life in the former, i.e. joy, and comfort, and happiness, which is oft signified by light, as the contrary is by darkness. See Job 29:3 Psa 27:1; Isa 9:2. There we shall have pure light without any mixture of darkness. The word light is elegantly repeated in another signification; in the former clause it is light discovering, in this, light discovered or enjoyed.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. Light is an emblem of allblessings, given of God as a means to gain more.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For with thee [is] the fountain of life,…. Or “lives” f: God himself is the fountain of living waters; this is a reason proving the happiness of those that trust in the Lord, and that they shall enjoy the above things; because with God the object of their trust is the fountain of life; not only of natural life, from whom they have it, and by whom it is supported, but of spiritual life, being quickened by him when dead in sin, by virtue of which they live by faith on Christ, and also of eternal life; and the phrase denotes, that life is originally in God as in its fountain, and that both the fulness of it is with him, and the freeness of it in the communication of it to others, as well as its continuance and duration;
in thy light shall we see light; God is light itself, the Father of lights, and the former of it in every sense; in the light of his countenance, and the discoveries of his love, they that trust in him see light, or enjoy comfort; and in the light of his Son Jesus Christ, the sun of righteousness and light of the world, they see the face of God, and enjoy his favour, and behold the glory and excellency of Christ himself; and in the light of the divine Spirit, who is a spirit of wisdom and revelation, they see their sins exceeding sinful, their righteousness as nothing, and a preciousness in the blood, righteousness, and sacrifice of Christ; and in the light of the divine word they see the truths of the Gospel in their native simplicity and excellency, and the duties of religion to be performed by them; and in the light of faith, which is the gift of God, they have at least a glimpse of the unseen glories of the other world; and when the beatific vision shall take place, they shall see no more darkly through a glass, but face to face, even God himself, as he is in Christ.
f “vena vitarum”, Montanus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
9. For with thee is the fountain of life The Psalmist here confirms the doctrine of the preceding verse, the knowledge of which is so profitable that no words can adequately express it. As the ungodly profane even the best of God’s gifts by their wicked abuse of them, unless we observe the distinction which I have stated, it were better for us to perish a hundred times of hunger, than to be fed abundantly by the goodness of God. The ungodly do not acknowledge that it is in God they live, move, and have their being, but rather imagine that they are sustained by their own power; and, accordingly, David, on the contrary, here affirms from the experience of the godly, and as it were in their name, that the fountain of life is in God. By this he means, that there is not a drop of life to be found without him, or which flows not from his grace. The metaphor of light, in the last clause of the verse, is tacitly most emphatic, denoting that men are altogether destitute of light, except in so far as the Lord shines upon them. If this is true of the light; of this life, how shall we be able to behold the light of the heavenly world, unless the Spirit of God enlighten us? for we must maintain that the measure of understanding with which men are by nature endued is such, that
“
the light shineth in darkness, but the darkness comprehendeth it not,” (Joh 1:5😉
and that men are enlightened only by a supernatural gift. But it is the godly alone who perceive that they derive their light from God, and that, without it, they would continue, as it were, buried and smothered in darkness.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(9) In thy light.Better, by thy light. This wonderful verse inspired Miltons sublime invocation:
The author of all being,
Fountain of light, thyself invisible
Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sittst.
It contains the germ of that moral and spiritual teaching which had its highest development in the Epistles of St. John. But the original intention of the words seems to be that the favour and bounty of God commend themselves as divine in origin, especially to those in the covenant relation.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. With thee is the fountain of life Here is the fundamental truth of all divine revelation. See Jer 2:13; Joh 17:13. From this “fountain” flow all streams of the water “of life” to irrigate and beautify the Eden of God. Rev 22:1; compare Gen 2:10-14.
In thy light shall we see light The figure changes. As there is no water of life but that which proceeds from God the eternal “Fountain,” so there is no “light” of life but God’s revealed truth. Joh 1:4; Joh 1:9; Rev 22:5. Such language, in the Old Testament or the New, is susceptible only of the highest spiritual application, as an earnest of the life eternal with God.
As a concluding prayer, David recognises, in Psa 36:10-12, the Church as in great affliction from the doings of wicked, unprincipled oppressors. Psa 36:10 is a prayer for the Church; Psa 36:11, for the poet himself, herein personifying the Church. See the introductory note.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
DISCOURSE: 562
CHRIST THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE AND LIGHT
Psa 36:9. With thee is the fountain of life; in thy light shall we see light.
BY a sober consideration of Scripture metaphors we obtain a more full and comprehensive knowledge of divine truth, than could easily be obtained from the most laboured discussions. Besides, the ideas suggested by them strike the mind so forcibly, that they cannot fail of making a deep and lasting im pression. Let us but notice the rich variety of figures whereby the Deity is set forth in the passage before us, and we shall be filled with admiring and adoring thoughts of his goodness. The Psalmist, illustrating the loving-kindness of his God, represents him first under the image of a hen gathering her chickens; then as an opulent host feasting his guests with the richest dainties; and then, in a beautiful climax, he compares him to the sun.
In our text there is no confusion of metaphor, as there would be if the former part referred to a fountain, and the latter to the sun. It is the sun alone that is spoken of: for that is the fountain both of light and life: and in discoursing upon it, we observe, that,
I.
Christ is an inexhaustible source of all spiritual good
Christ may be considered as peculiarly referred to in the metaphor before us
[It is in Christ only that the perfections mentioned in the foregoing verses are combined [Note: ver. 5, 6.]. It is in him only that God unites justice with mercy [Note: Rom 3:26.], or adheres, in faithfulness, to his covenant engagements [Note: 2Co 1:20.]. Besides, it is in this view that Christ is set forth throughout all the sacred oracles, by prophets [Note: Isa 60:1. Mal 4:2.], by Apostles [Note: Joh 1:4; Joh 1:9. Luk 2:32. 2Pe 1:19.], and more especially by himself [Note: Joh 8:12; Joh 12:46.] We may well therefore apply to him the comparison before us: and we shall find it admirably deseriptive of his real character.]
He is to the spiritual, what the sun is to the material, world
[The sun is the fountain of light and life to this lower world. When that is withdrawn, the earth is left in darkness, the vegetable world decays, and myriads of animals are secluded in a state of torpor. But when it returns m its brightness, it both dispels the darkness, and restores to nature her suspended powers
Thus, where Christ has not shined, universal darkness and death prevail. But when he arises on the soul, he enlightens it, and infuses into it a principle of life [Note: Eph 2:1.], whereby its faculties are made capable of spiritual exertions; and it is rendered fruitful in all the fruits of righteousness to Gods praise and glory ]
We have abundant encouragement to seek his influence, since,
II.
They who live in communion with him shall surely participate his blessings
As the sun shines in vain to him who secludes himself in a dungeon, so, unless we come forth to Christs light, we cannot possibly behold his light. But if we view him as we ought, we shall then attain the light of knowledge, the light of comfort, the light of holiness, the light of glory.
1.
Our minds shall be enlightened with divine knowledge
[By the light of the sun we behold the objects around us; and by the light of Christ we discern the things belonging to our peace. In his face all the glory of the Godhead shines [Note: 2Co 4:6. Col 1:15.], insomuch that he who has seen him, has seen the Father also [Note: Joh 14:9.]. Nor is there any one subject relating to salvation which does not receive its clearest illustration from him]
2.
Our souls shall be enriched with heavenly comfort
[The consolation we derive from other sources is light and unsubstantial: and the things which promise us most happiness, often prove only a fleeting meteor, or a delusive vapour. But a sight of Christ, of his fulness, his suitableness, his all-sufficiency, affords a ground of comfort, firm as the rocks, and lasting as eternity [Note: 2Co 1:5.]]
3.
Our hearts shall be renewed in righteousness and true holiness
[Nothing produces such effects as a sight of Christ. We may hear the law proclaimed in all its terrors, and yet experience no abiding change. But a view of Christ as crucified for us, will break the most obdurate heart [Note: Zec 12:10.]raise the most desponding soul [Note: 1Pe 1:3.]inspire the selfish with unbounded love [Note: 1Jn 3:16.]and fill the mourner with unutterable joy [Note: 1Pe 1:8.]: In a word, it will change a sinful man into the very image of his God and Saviour [Note: 2Co 3:18.].]
4.
The light of glory itself shall also be enjoyed by us
[Christ is the one source of happiness to all the hosts of heaven [Note: Rev 21:23.]. To behold his beauty, to taste his love, to celebrate his praises, this is their employment, this their supreme felicity [Note: Rev 5:8-13.]. Such too is the occupation, such the happiness of every true believer: he has an earnest of heaven in his soul; and this earnest is a pledge that, in due season, he shall receive the consummation of all his wishes in the immediate vision of his Saviours glory, and the everlasting fruition of his love [Note: Eph 1:13-14 and 1Jn 3:2.]]
Infer,
1.
How great is the folly of seeking happiness in the creature !
[Created things, in comparison of Christ, are no more than a broken cistern to a fountain [Note: Jer 2:13.], or than a star in comparison of the meridian sun. Let us then seek our happiness in Christ, and in him alone. In him, as in the sun, there is a fulness and a sufficiency for all [Note: Col 1:19.]. And to him all may have access, if they will not obstinately immure themselves in impenitence and unbelief [Note: Eph 5:14.]. Let us not then kindle sparks for ourselves, or walk in the light of our own fires [Note: Isa 1:11.], but come forth to his light, and walk in it to the latest hour of our lives [Note: Joh 12:35-36.].]
2.
How unspeakable is the blessedness of knowing Christ !
[If we could conceive ourselves in a region where a winters midnight was perpetuated; and then be transported in idea to a climate, where noontide light, and vernal beauty, were uninterruptedly enjoyed, we might have some faint image of the change effected by the knowledge of Christ [Note: 1Pe 2:9.], Truly the Christian is in Goshen [Note: Exo 9:26; Exo 10:22-23.]: or if, for a little moment he be in darkness, there ariseth up a light unto him in the midst of it [Note: Psa 112:4.], and his darkness becomes as the noon-day [Note: Isa 58:10.]. And, in a little time his sun shall no more go down; but his Lord shall be unto him an everlasting light, and his God his glory [Note: Isa 60:19-20.]. O that this may be the constant pursuit, and the happy attainment of us all!]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 36:9 For with thee [is] the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.
Ver. 9. For with thee is the fountain of life ] Vena vitae, verae vitae scaturigo, A fountain communicateth its water, and yet is not exhausted. Fontium perennitas, is one of the wonders in nature: what shall we say of this Divine fountain of life, temporal, spiritual, and eternal, overflowing and ever flowing?
In thy light shall we see light
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Life and Light
For with thee is the fountain of life:
In thy light shall we see light.Psa 36:9.
St. Augustine asks, What is the fountain of life, unless Christ? and he adds, He who is the Fountain is the Light. Our Lord said, Whensoever I am in the world, I am the light of the world; and again, I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall have the light of life. This is further explained by St. John, with reference to our Lord as the Word: That which hath been made in him is life, and the life was the light of men. Thus we have continually associated together as in the text the two ideas of life and light, both finding their fullest meaning in our Lord Jesus Christ. As gifts or possessions from Him and through Him, we cannot separate them. The presence of the one bespeaks the presence of the other, and each the recreating presence of the Spirit of God. Light necessarily comes to us if there is life, and life necessarily issues when light enters.
On some of the Alpine passes there are rude shelters for distressed travellers, but they are only shelters; they hold no food, no water, no light, no warmth; the man they have saved may perish within their walls. The Redeemer is sometimes thought of as a mere refuge to flee to from condemnation. How imperfect that is; for though we are saved from condemnation we have as many wants as heart-beats; but when the eyes of the refugee are opened he sees a home there, and everything he needs for all time, for all events, for all perfection. We flee to Him for safety, but He puts this song into our mouth:
Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
More than all in Thee I find.1 [Note: Charles New.]
I
The Source of Life
With thee is the fountain of life.
1. God is the fountain of life in the merely physical sense. He has life in Himself, and He communicates His life in multitudinous forms. He does not derive His life: it rises eternally in Himself. The life we need is ever flowing from God. All the life in the universe, visible and invisible, is from Him. Vegetable life with its myriad forms, in hedgerow, garden, forest, and field; animal life from the tiniest animalcul to the mammoths of Eastern lands; human liveswhich die, we are told, at the rate of nearly 4000 every hour, their places being taken by as many more; lives in the unseen world, the innumerable inhabitants of the unseen state. Space throbs and palpitates with life. What a conception it gives of the almightiness of our Heavenly Father! Of all this life He is the source.
2. But life is more than physical existence; it is fellowship with the Unseen. When God passed from the formation of His other creatures to the creation of man, He added something over and above what they had, something direct from Himself to make life; He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Sin changed the base of life; it made another base necessary. God put all life into His Son. And that life which is in Christ is the real spring and essence of all that constitutes true human life. There must be generation from Him; there must be contact with Him; there must be union with Him to make lifelife properly so calledthe life which is the being of a manthe life that fulfils the end of lifethe life that is for ever and for ever. The beginning of life, then, mans real life, is oneness with the Lord Jesus.
Life in the Old Testament is primarily the physical, earthly life, the sum of energies which make up mans actual existence. The soul separated from the body does not cease to be, but it forfeits its portion in the true life. Two factors, however, were latent in the Old Testament conception from the beginning, and became more and more prominent in the course of the later development. In the first place, the radical element in life is activity. Mere physical existence is distinguished from that essential life which consists in the unrestricted play of all the energies, especially of the higher and more characteristic. In the loftier passages of the Psalms, more particularly, the idea of life has nearly always a pregnant sense. It is associated with joy, prosperity, peace, wisdom, righteousness; man lives according as he has free scope for the activities which are most distinctive of his spiritual nature. God Himself is emphatically the living one. He is the creative, ever-active Godsufficient to Himself, the source of all reality and power. Life is His supreme attribute, distinguishing Him from men with their thousand weaknesses and limitations. The other factor in the Old Testament conception is even more important in its bearing on later thought. Since God alone possesses life in the highest sense, fellowship with Him is the one condition on which men can obtain it. With thee is the fountain of life. In the higher regions of Old Testament thought, life and communion with God are interchangeable ideas. The belief in immortality is never expressly stated, but, as Jesus Himself indicates, it was implicit in this knowledge of a God who was not the God of the dead, but of the living.1 [Note: E. F. Scott, The Fourth Gospel, 235.]
3. And this life is conveyed to man through Christ. He secures it for us by the surrender of His own life, His sacrifice on Calvary, thus making it possible for the Father to bestow it righteously on us who are unworthy of it. And He, Christ crucified and alive again, is the medium of its communication. Again and again He claims, and it is claimed for Him, that He is the Author of life. I am come, He says, that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly; He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life; The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord; God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. The Father is the fountain, but, said Christ, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
Like the great aqueducts that stretch from the hills across the Roman Campagna, His Incarnation brings the waters of the fountain from the mountains of God into the lower levels of our nature, and the fetid alleys of our sins. The cool, sparkling treasure is carried near to every lip. If we drink, we live. If we will not, we die in our sins, and are dead whilst we live. Stop the fountain, and what becomes of the stream? It fades between its banks, and is no more. You cannot live the life of the animal except that life be joined to Him. If it could be broken away from God it would disappear as the clouds melt in the sky, and there would be nobody, and you would be nowhere. You cannot break yourself away from God physically so completely as to annihilate yourself. You can do so spiritually; some do it, and the consequence is that they are dead! You can be made alive from the dead, if you will lay hold on Jesus Christ, and get His life-giving spirit into your heart.1 [Note: A. Maclaren.]
(1) The fountain is mysterious in its origin. This is perhaps the thought that first occurs to any one who stands by the rushing fountain pouring forth its stream of life; and the mystery has led the uninstructed nations to curious conjectures as to the origin of these fountains.
Some years ago the engineers engaged in constructing the water-works of the city of Beyrout set themselves to the task of exploring the caverns from which issues the permanent supply of the Dog River. After great labour and repeated expeditions they succeeded in penetrating to a distance of three-quarters of a mile into the heart of the mountain; but as they passed onward from lake to torrent, now under lofty dome, and again through narrow and tortuous channels, the water was undiminished in its volume, and finally a roaring cataract barred their progress and forbade them to search farther into the secret of the living stream.
So is it that life, after all our inquiries into its nature and origin, remains hidden from us. We are conscious of its existence, we can see its effects, but in itself it is a mystery, even as the great Giver of it, the Fountain of Life, dwells in thick darkness. We can only say, In his hand is the breath of all living. In Him we live, and move, and have our being.2 [Note: J. Robertson, in Sunday Magazine, 1881, p. 703.]
(2) The fountain is free and full in its flow. The people of the East call water the gift of God; and so throughout Scripture the invitation is repeated in various forms: Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. For the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. This stream of spiritual life, though in its origin far above the level of human nature, bursts forth in our nature, and at a level within reach of the poorest and the vilest. At the lowest point of the humiliation of the Son of God it was manifested. Though springing from the bosom of the eternal hills it runs in the valleys, and he that would have life must first know the power of death. The Rock of Ages cleft for us is the point at which we receive the gift of God, and we receive it without money and without price.
The water of the fountain will flow of its own necessity. It is in its very nature that it must flow if only we do not wilfully hinder it. It is always flowing into an open heart.1 [Note: James Vaughan.]
(3) The fountain of life brings life wherever it flows.
One of the most striking of all the fountains of Syria is the fountain of Fijeh, in Anti-Lebanon, which furnishes at one spring from the solid rock three-fourths of the waters of the river Barada, the ancient Abana of Damascus. The traveller pitches his tent under the walnut-trees that overhang the fountain; lulled to sleep by it at night, he hears it at every waking hour; and when the rising sun pierces through the thick foliage its rays fall upon the sparkling river, rushing on with undiminished strength. By night and by day, when swollen by the rains of winter, and after all the snow on the highest heights has disappeared, for six long months of drought, the fountain pours forth its stream of life. And the nodding oleanders dip their flowered heads in its stream, and the poplars and walnut-trees draw their deep life from its waters, and orchards and gardens flourish along its banks, and it scatters life and beauty wherever it goes. But let us leave for a little the narrow valley in which it holds its course, and as we bend off to the left and its sound fades away on the ear, let us observe how vegetation gets scantier and poorer, till, within sight and almost within hearing of the river, we stand in a dry, parched wilderness. Proceeding still across the arid waste we reach the summit of a hill that is burnt up by the summer sun, and we have before us a view that is unparalleled in the East, perhaps unequalled in the world. A plain of vast extent is bounded on all sides by barren deserts, but in its centre, embedded in a belt of living green, is a city of a hundred and fifty thousand souls, for the river is there, and whithersoever the river comes there is life.2 [Note: J. Robertson, in Sunday Magazine, 1881, p. 704.]
(4) The water of the fountain is always seeking to rise to the level from which it came. This makes the very life and beauty of the fountain. So will it be with the fountain of life. It will always be mounting to the height, the heavenly height from which it sprang, bearing us up and up to that world from which it came; and though it never reaches it, it will aspire to it; it will always be nearing it, continually approaching the heaven of its birth, the God of its creation.
It is difficult to be always true to ourselves, to be always what we wish to be, what we feel we ought to be. As long as we feel that, as long as we do not surrender the ideal of our life, all is right. Our aspirations represent the true nature of our soul much more than our everyday life.1 [Note: Max Mller.]
Alas! long-suffering and most patient God,
Thou needst be surelier God to bear with us
Than even to have made us! Thou aspire, aspire
From henceforth for me! Thou who hast Thyself
Endured this fleshhood, knowing how as a soaked
And sucking vesture it can drag us down
And choke us in the melancholy Deep,
Sustain me, that with Thee I walk these waves,
Resisting!breathe me upward, Thou in me
Aspiring, who art the way, the truth, the life,
That no truth henceforth seem indifferent,
No way to truth laborious, and no life,
Not even this life I live, intolerable!2 [Note: E. B. Browning.]
II
The Source of Light
In thy light shall we see light.
God is the Father of lights. The sun and all the stars are only lights kindled by Him. It is the very crown of revelation that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. Light seems to the unscientific eye, which knows nothing about undulations of a luminiferous ether, to be the least material of material things. All joyous things come with it. It brings warmth and fruit, joyfulness and life. Purity, and gladness, and knowledge have been symbolized by it in all tongues. The Scripture uses light, and the sun, which is its source, as an emblem for God in His holiness and blessedness and omniscience.
The Psalmist saw the world all full of seekers after light; he was a seeker after light himself. What he had discovered, and what he wanted to tell men, was that the first step in a hopeful search after light must be for a man to put himself into the element of light, which is God. The first thing for any man to do who wanted knowledge was to put himself under God, to make himself Gods man; because both he who wanted to know and that which he wanted to know had God for their true element and were their best and did their best only as they lived in Him.
When I try to describe to myself this thought of David about mans seeing all light in the light of God, no picture like the picture of a true and docile childhood seems to me to express it. A child in his fathers house learns everything within the intelligence and character of his father, who has provided all things there, and is perpetually throwing light upon their proper use. Everything has its own qualities, but those qualities are made distinct and vivid to the child by their relation to the master of the house. Not purely in themselves, but in his fathers use of them and in their relationship to him does the child come to know the tools of the workshop, the furniture of the parlour, and all the apparatus of domestic life. So, I believe, it is with the childs knowledge of the larger house, the world-house, of which God is the Father.1 [Note: P. Brooks, Sermons Preached in English Churches, 104.]
1. Nothing is seen in its own lightnot even a visible thing. A landscape is not seen in its own light; it is perceived very much in the light of yesterday. How little of what you see is mere perception! Every sight of nature is tinged with the light of memory. The poet looks from the bridge at midnight upon the rushing waters; but what he sees is not the flowing tide; it is a tide of memory that fills his eyes with tears. You listen to the babbling of the brook; but what you hear is not the babbling, it is the utterance of a dear name. You visit Rome, you visit Jerusalem, you visit Greece; do you see any of these by its own light? No; they are all beheld by the light of yesterday; there is their glory, there lies their gold! Even so, cries the Psalmist, it is with this world; if you want to see it, you must look at it by the light of another worldGods coming world. He does not mean that when we quit the scenes of earth we shall have bright light in heaven. It is more than that. It is for the scenes of earth he wants the heavenly light. He says you cannot interpret your own skies without it. We often say that in the light of eternity earthly objects will fade from our sight. But the Psalmist says that, until we get the light of eternity, earthly objects will never be in our sight. It is by the light of the Celestial Citythe City which has no need of the sunthat alone we can tell what here is large and what here is small.
Jesus knew the streets of Jerusalem and the lanes of Galilee and the history of His mysterious Hebrew people, and the hearts of the lilies and the souls of men; but He knew them all differently from the way in which the Hebrew scribes and scholars knew them. To Him they were all full of light. There is no other description of His knowledge that can tell its special and peculiar character like that. It was all full of light. And the other peculiarity of it was just as clear. It was full also of God. He knew everything as Gods child in Gods house. The history of the prophets and the heart of the lily both meant something about His Father. These two peculiarities belonged together. The world was full of light to Him because it was full of God. It was Gods light in which He saw the deeper light in everything.1 [Note: P. Brooks, Sermons Preached in English Churches, 105.]
2. If we need Gods light to appreciate natural beauty and to grasp intellectual truth, much more do we need it to apprehend spiritual realities. It is in communion with Him who is the Light as well as the Life of men that we see a whole universe of glories, realities, and brightnesses. Where other eyes see only darkness, we behold the King in his beauty, and the land that is very far off. Where other men see only cloudland and mists, our vision will pierce into the unseen, and there behold the things which are, the only real things, of which all that the eye of sense sees are the fleeting shadows, seen as in a dream, while these are the true, and the sight of them is sight indeed. They who see by the light of God, and see light therein, have a vision which is more than imagination, more than opinion, more than belief. It is certitude. Communication with God does not bring with it superior intellectual perspicuity, but it does bring a perception and an experience of spiritual realities and relations, which, in respect of clearness and certainty, may be called sight. Many of us walk in darkness, who, if we were but in communion with God, would see the lone hillside blazing with chariots and horses of fire. Many of us grope in perplexity, who, if we were but hiding under the shadow of Gods wings, would see the truth and walk at liberty in the light which is knowledge and purity and joy.
(1) It needs a God to make God known.Light has this property, that it is at once the vehicle and that which is borne by the vehicle; it is the revelation and its channel, and this twofold property of light remains the same whether we regard it as the old school of physicists didas an actual emanation of particles; or as the new school doas only an undulation or vibration of some invisible ether itself at rest. The oft-quoted line of the poet, that we may rise from nature up to natures God, then, is either a truism or a sophism; a truism if we mean only that nature reveals something of Gods character while it conceals the rest; a sophism, if we mean that man, by the unassisted light of his natural faculties, is able to discover the invisible things of God. We can know God only by Himself. The light must be Divine by which we see that there is anything whatever Divine to see and behold.
When Dante has reached the Ninth of the Heavenly Spheres he catches his first glimpse of the Godhead, the Central Point on which Heaven and all Nature hangs, surrounded by nine circles of fire, which he is told are the nine choirs of angelic beings. But though he can see them in their operation, his vision is too imperfect to see them as they are. He must drink of the River of Light. Then he beholds the Rose of the Blessed, with its myriads of saints. But still he is unable to see God. The Virgin Mary procures this grace for him, and gazing on the Central Point he sees three circles, like rainbows, and, being illuminated by a flash of Divine Light, he comprehends the mystery of the Holy Trinity and of the Incarnation.
(2) Only in Gods light can we truly see ourselves.We wish really to know ourselves, our own real being and position. What are we? Where do we stand in the scale of Gods creation, as God sees us? We are so many things wrapped up in one; we are, alas! a mass of contradictionsso very different at different times. What am I? What am I, as an angel sees me? As truth sees me? As God sees me? What am I? I grow so perplexed when I go down into the dark depths of my own soul. No natural light can clear up this. There must be a light from outside, a light from above. In thy light, the soul will have to say at last out of all its searchingsin thy light shall I see light. Down in those hidden crevices of my own innermost, blackest being, Lord, give me light to see clearly what I am.
John Leech, says Dean Hole, had an original and effective method of reprimanding his children. If their faces were distorted by anger, by a rebellious temper, or a sullen mood, he took out his sketch book, transferred their lineaments with a slight exaggeration to paper, and showed them, to their shameful confusion, how ugly naughtiness was.1 [Note: R. E. Welsh, Gods Gentlemen, 41.]
3. The full effulgence of the Divine Light was manifested in Christ, who is both God and the Revealer of God. He is the light which alone is uncreated light, bright effluence of bright essence increatelanguage which Milton strangely enough has applied to material light, but which is inappropriate unless applied to Him who is the true Sun of Righteousness. As for material light, however subtle and ethereal, it is not Divine; the creature is not to be confounded with the Creator in this way. The language of the Psalmist is more careful and guarded: Thou coverest thyself with light as with a garment. Light, in fact, is like a garment, or veil, or fleecy cloud, across the moons disc, which part reveals and part conceals. So it is of all the material works of God, and hence the allegory of the ancients was not inexact which represented nature by the symbol of the veiled Isis. There is something seen through the veil, but more remains behind which we cannot see through. The same symbol was seen in the sanctuary, where a thick curtain hung between the Holy Place and the Most Holy of All; that curtain, woven within and without with cherubim, signifying this, that what was seen was the multiform appearance of creation, of which the cherubim were the symbol, while behind was that which no man hath seen or can seeGod in Himself.
(1) Christ lights up the unlighted lustre in our nature.Conversion is the lighting up of our nature with the spark of Gods Holy Spirit out of heaven. When a man is converted he does not get new brains; he does not get new senses or capacities; he is still surrounded by the old relationships, and he still moves in the selfsame world. But men have been heard to tell the story of their conversion, and they have said, The stars seemed new to me, and even the sun shone differently. And we have known men who had made every one round them miserable develop into true gentlemen when God met with them. Nor can any one move among our peasantry, and see the wisdom and weight and power of certain characters, without perceiving how much it has meant for them that they have known the living and true God. What has happened to them? Have they received new faculties? No, it is not thatthe lustre was always there. But the light of all light has entered their circuit now, and the spark that is Gods has kindled the spiritual candle: it is not a difference of added lustre; it is just that the lustre has been lighted up.
The doctrine of conversion played so large a part in Bishop Wilkinsons life that it demands a few words, because it is so often misunderstood. Conversion, in its perverted sense, is often used to describe a sort of mental crisis in which, under the influence of hysterical excitement and rhetorical intoxication, the spirit is hypnotized into an experience so abnormal that it often has a permanent effect on character, and has in retrospect the appearance of a Divine interposition. That was not what Wilkinson meant by conversion. He believed, indeed, that it often came suddenly upon the soul, but that it was only a natural step in a chain of circumstance, like the parting of the avalanche from the snowfield. What he meant by it was a realization of truth, of the personal relation with God, so vivid and indubitable that the soul could never be in any doubt as to its redemption and its ultimate destiny. But he believed that this might be a tranquil and reasoned process, though in the case of sin-stained lives he was inclined to feel that the break with the past must often be of the nature of an instantaneous revulsion, a sudden perception of the hideousness of sin, and a dawning of the light of God.1 [Note: A. C. Benson, The Leaves of the Tree, 116.]
(2) Christ sheds light for us on the manifold paths of duty.It is wonderful how, when a man lives near God, he comes to know what he ought to do. That great Light, which is Christ, is like the star that hung over the Magi, blazing in the heavens, and yet stooping to the lowly task of guiding three wayfaring men along a muddy road upon earth. So the highest Light of God comes down to be a Lantern for our paths and a Light for our feet. Now the light comes just as we are ready to obey the will of the Most High. Abraham had to leave his home and go out, not knowing whither he went. Moses had to return from the home he had in Midian to the country where they had sought his life. The people of Israel had to journey into the great and terrible wilderness. The prophets had to pass through stern ordeals. The apostles must leave all and follow Christ. St. Paul must bow his neck under the yoke of Him whom a moment before he was persecuting, and say, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And do we not know that the light of God is most fully in our souls when by Divine grace we are uprooting self-indulgence and self-will?
To St. Francis of Assisi, as he set out to join the champion of the Church, Walter de Brienne, intoxicated with the idea that he himself was destined to become a great leader, came a vision at Spoleto. Francis, called the voice of God, who can make thee the better knight, the Master or the servant, the rich man or the poor? The Master, said Francis, not the servant, the rich man, not the poor. Then said the voice: But thou leavest the Master for the servant and the rich man for the poor. And Francis said: What dost Thou will that I should do, O my Lord? And the Lord said: Turn thee back to thy own land, for the vision that thou didst see meant heavenly and not earthly equipment, and it shall be given thee by God and not by man. Obedient to the vision, Francis gave up all thought of rejoining the band of Assisan soldiers, and rode slowly home that day, revolving in his mind this grace vouchsafed of direction in the path of the Spirit. It must have been from this time that he felt it was to no mundane glory he was being guided, but rather to the glory which vanquishes the world. One wonders how the struggle shaped itself, how keen were the pangs which moved him, as one fair temporal hope after another took on the likeness of a phantasm and trembled into nothingness at the potent presence of these unwonted and unseen realities. One wonders how his spirit stirred and shook as their amazing intervention became indubitable; how the unequal contest agonized and astounded him; how, step by step, the spiritual gained upon the temporal, whilst his shrinking flesh cried aloud in the suffering of death. Only this we know: he obeyed, and, in obedience to the Will, he found the Way, the way of the Cross, Christ Jesus, from which he never swerved.1 [Note: A. M. Stoddart, Francis of Assisi, 71.]
Then fiercely we dig the fountain:
Oh! whence do the waters rise?
Then panting we climb the mountain:
Oh! are there indeed blue skies?
We dig till the soul is weary,
Nor find the water-nest out;
We climb to the stone-crest dreary,
And still the sky is a doubt!
Let alone the roots of the fountain;
Drink of the water bright;
Leave the sky at rest on the mountain,
Walk in its torrent of light;
Although thou seest no beauty,
Though widowed thy heart yet cries,
With thy hands go and do thy duty,
And thy work will clear thine eyes.1 [Note: George MacDonald, A Book of Dreams (Poetical Works, i. 394).]
Literature
Benson (E. W.), Boy-Life, 32.
Brooks (P.), Sermons Preached in English Churches, 89.
Cooke (G. A.), The Progress of Revelation , 3.
Creighton (M.), The Heritage of the Spirit, 185.
Matheson (G.), Leaves for Quiet Hours, 192.
Morrison (G. H.), The Unlighted Lustre, 30.
Stone (D.), The Discipline of Faith, 31.
Thackeray (F. St. John), Sermons Preached in Eton College Chapel, 105.
Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), viii. (1871), No. 742; xxii. (1883), No. 1232; xxiii. (1883), No. 1259.
Cambridge Review, ix. Supplement No. 232 (R. Machray).
Christian Commonwealth, xxxii. (1912) 437 (R. J. Campbell).
Christian World Pulpit, xvi. 106 (J. B. Heard); xx 392 (J. B. Tinling).
Church of England Pulpit, lxiii. 76 (M. P. Maturin).
Churchmans Pulpit: The Epiphany, iii. 286 (G. F. Terry).
Preacliefs Magazine, v. (1894) 97 (C. New).
Sunday Magazine, 1881, p. 702 (J. Robertson).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
For: Isa 12:3, Jer 2:13, Joh 4:10, Joh 4:14, Joh 7:37-39, Rev 21:6, Rev 22:17
in thy: Psa 27:1, Job 29:3, Pro 4:18, Isa 2:5, Isa 60:1, Isa 60:2, Isa 60:19, Mal 4:2, Joh 1:8, Joh 1:9, Joh 8:12, 2Co 4:6, Jam 1:17, 1Pe 2:9, 1Jo 1:7, Rev 21:23
Reciprocal: Deu 30:20 – thy life Job 20:17 – the rivers Psa 17:15 – I shall Psa 42:2 – thirsteth Psa 46:4 – a river Son 4:15 – a well Jer 17:13 – forsaken Dan 2:22 – and the Joh 3:36 – see Joh 5:26 – hath life Joh 5:39 – ye think Joh 11:25 – the life Joh 12:46 – am Act 17:28 – in him Eph 3:20 – exceeding Col 1:12 – in 1Jo 1:5 – that God 1Jo 2:8 – and the Rev 7:17 – shall lead Rev 22:5 – no night
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 36:9. With thee is the fountain of life From which those rivers of pleasure flow. Life is in God as in a fountain, and from him is derived to us. As the God of nature, he is the fountain of natural life; in him we live, and move, and have our being. As the God of grace, he is the fountain of spiritual life: all the strength and comfort of sanctified souls; all their gracious principles, powers, and performances, are from him. He is the spring and author of all their sensations of divine things, and of all their motions toward them; and he invites all that thirst, nay, and whosoever will, to come and partake of these waters of life freely. As the God of glory, he is the fountain of eternal life: the happiness of glorified saints consists in the vision and fruition of him, and in the immediate communications of his love, without interruption, or fear, or cessation. This glorious, blessed, and endless life is alone worthy of the name of life: this present temporal life being only a passage to death, and a theatre of great and manifold calamities. In thy light In the knowledge of thee in grace, and the vision of thee in glory; especially in the latter; in the light of thy countenance, or glorious presence, which then shall be fully manifested unto us, when we shall see thee clearly and face to face, and not through a glass and darkly, as we now see; shall we see light The light of life, as it is called, Joh 8:12; light in this clause being the same thing with life in the former: pure light without any mixture of darkness; knowledge without ignorance, holiness without sin, happiness without misery. The word light is elegantly repeated in another signification; in the former clause it is light discovering, in this, light discovered or enjoyed.