III. IN RELATION TO CHRISTENDOM.
We now come to the last section of this psalm
(verses 16-23), addressed to a third party which is
distinct from " His saints " (verse 5) and " Israel " (verse 7). " But to the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare My statutes, or that thou shouldest take My covenant in thy mouth ? " Who are these ? Not the nations who have not heard of the fame or glory of Christ, but professors in Christendom who know in a manner God's statutes, and who unworthily take His holy covenant in their mouth (verse 16). This feature marks them off at once from the heathen, and from those who are truly God's. The distinguishing characteristic of those who are true subjects of the new covenant of grace is this : " I will put My law in their inward parts, and will write it in their hearts ; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people " (Jer. xxxi. 33) ; but these have the covenant only in their mouth.
1 The word is the same as in the command " Honour thy father
and mother."
HOW IT SHALL BE BROKEN 91
They cry indeed, " Lord, Lord," and are often so like
the real and true that it is impossible for man to distin-
guish (Matt xiii. 24-30), but they are the tares among
the wheat ; the foolish virgins, who merely imitate the
wise ; the goats among Christ's true sheep, to whom He
shall say in that day, " I never knew you ; depart from
Me, ye workers of iniquity." They are those represented
by the evil servant who says in his heart, " My Lord
delayeth His coming," and begins to smite the true
men-servants and maidens in Christ's Church, and to
eat and drink and be drunken ; to whom the Lord will
" come in a day when he looketh not for Him, and at
an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in
sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the un-
believers (Luke xii. 45, 46). They are the same of
whom the apostle warns us as especially manifesting
themselves in the perilous times of the " last days," when " men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, ostentatious, arrogant, defamers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, irreligious, without natural affection, truce- breakers, intriguers, without self-control, fierce, despisers of good men, traitors, reckless, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof" (2 Tim. iii. 1-5). The very fact of their knowing and speaking of God's statutes is an aggravation of their guilt, and will increase their condemnation, for they are like that servant who knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, and who shall be beaten with many stripes (Luke xii. 47). Better far had it been for them had they been born in heathen lands, and never heard of God's grace or covenant faithfulness, instead of hearing it and responding only with their mouth.
But the address continues : " And thou hatest in-
struction, and castest My words behind thee." Here
92 THE SILENCE OF GOD
are other striking features of apostate professors. They have God's statutes in their mouth, and it may be are very careful in chanting the responses as the solemn words of the Ten Commandments are read out to them in the church on a Sunday. They know also that " instruction in righteousness " is one of the chief ends for which these statutes were given by God, yet in their heart they hate instruction ; nay, in wilful rebellion they cast God's words behind their back in contemptuous disregard. This is no poetic fancy or exaggeration, but a graphic picture of what may already be seen even in Protestant Christendom, and what is becoming more and more manifest as the time of the end draws nigh.
Alas ! Christendom is guilty of the very same things
which characterised the last stages of Israel's previous
apostasy which culminated in judgment. They also
were disobedient and rebelled against God by " casting
His laws behind their back " (Nehem. ix. 26), wherefore
they were given into the hands of their enemies, and
wrath came upon them to the uttermost ; and this to a
more terrible degree will be the lot of Christendom.