December 24

Thou tellest my wanderings. - Psalms 56:8.

OBSERVE, first, This may have reference to local changes. Abraham was a wanderer. When called to leave Ur of the Chaldees he went out, not knowing whither he went; and though he was without an earthly guide, all his satisfaction was derived from hence, and of his being able to say,” Thou knowest the way that I take.”

The patriarchs were all wanderers when they went from “one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people.” Take Israel; forty years they “wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.” David was a great wanderer. Saul regarded him with envy and drove him from his presence, and to elude his apprehension he was perpetually compelled to shift his residence. He says, “he was hunted like a partridge upon the mountains.” But God knew all his wanderings, and preserved him in his going out and in his coming in.

Persecution has often driven the people of God from city to city, from country to country. Some of the most eminent servants of God have “wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted tormented; they wandered in deserts, and in mountains’ and in dens and caves of the earth.” Pious servants have been dismissed from their places and workmen from their employment, and have wandered about to find situations and engagements, and all this for conscience sake. “But there is no man,” says our Saviour, “that has left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children for the kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this world, and in the world to come life everlasting.”

How many, contrary to a disposition to enjoy a permanency, have had frequent removals from station to station. As soon as they had begun to feel attached and fixed, they heard a voice saying, “Arise, and depart hence, for this is not your rest.” Yet very important purposes have often been answered by these changes, and the Lord has known them all. Of this, as we see here, David was fully persuaded.

Observe, secondly, The recognition and acknowledgment here made of God’s omniscience and notice. “Thou tellest my wanderings.” The language must be figurative as applied to God; God needs no aid in any case; his understanding is infinite. But we reach numbers by counting and telling them, and so the effect is put for the cause. The sentiment here stands opposed to two things; the first is a kind of philosophical notion, namely, that God is supremely engaged in managing hundreds of worlds, and that he disregards all individualities.

But a general providence always comprehends a particular, as the greater includes the less, as the day includes the hour, and the hour includes the minutes. If we turn to the Scriptures we find a system of providence established there which extends to the minutest concerns of life. Yes; he is always a God at hand, not a God afar off; he is filling every vacuum, peopling every solitude, animating every scene; “in him we live and move, and have our being.” Then, also, it is opposed to a pious fear, in which good men are tempted to indulge, supposing that they are overlooked or disregarded by God, for their unworthiness, their guilt, and their imperfections.

Thus it was with Asaph, who said, “Will the Lord cast off for ever, will he be favourable no more?” So Zion said, “The Lord hath forsaken me, my God hath forgotten me.” And we know how tenderly and convincingly was the rebuke received. And Moses said to the Jews, “The Lord knoweth thy walkings through this great wilderness.” I believe this, says David; I believe nothing befalls me by chance; I believe that it is all permitted, appointed, arranged, and administered by the care of my heavenly Father.

So it should be with us; this thought should be with us a very influential and consolatory principle, keeping our minds in perfect peace, leading us to cast all our care upon him, knowing that” he careth for us.” Thus “in all our ways may we acknowledge him, and he will direct our paths.”