God abhors pride even in them whom He dearly loves, and shows His resentment of it by humbling providences, that remove man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. David was proud of the vast numbers of his subjects, but God soon showed him that great hosts save not a king, and that three days may greatly lessen the numbers of a people. Hezekiah’s heart was lifted up, but he was soon obliged to humble himself, being assured that the treasures which he had so ostentatiously showed to the Babylonish ambassadors should be carried with his posterity to their own land.—Lawson.
Did He not provide for sorrowing Naomi a staff in her faithful daughter, and ultimately establish her boarders in Israel? Did He not supply the pressing need of the minister’s widow (2 Kings iv. 1–7), and take up the Shunamite’s oppression, and again establish her border? (2 Kings viii. 1–6). And shall we forget how He teaches the returning penitent to plead the gracious manifestation, “In Thee the fatherless findest mercy?” (Psa. xiv. 2, 3).—Bridges.
The Lord will destroy the house of the proud. He will surely uproot him, unnest him, yea, though he hath set his nest among the stars, as he did proud Lucifer, who “kept not his first estate but left his habitation” (Jude 6), which, indeed, he could hold no longer. . . . But He will establish the border of the widow. Not the rest of her goods only, but the very utmost border of her small possession. She hath commonly no great matters to be proud of, nor any patrons to stick to her. She hath her name in Hebrew of dumbness, because either she cannot speak for herself, or, if she do speak, her tale cannot be heard (Luke xviii. 4).—Trapp.
A young body is too often the house of the proud, where strength being the pillars of it, beauty the trimming, vanity the roof, fond conceit imagineth itself to be married to a long life, never minding the mud walls whereof it consisteth. But God, who was the builder of it, seeing so ill an inmate as pride received into it, pulleth down His own work to destroy the devil’s work, and cutting the thread of life dissolveth the marriage knot, when expectation thought it to be strongest tied. On the other hand, where affliction hath humbled the heart of the widow, and may seem to have brought her to the border of her days, then doth God establish length of days, lifting up the light of His countenance upon her when lowliness of spirit hath virtuously cast her down.—Jermin.
main homiletics of verse 26.
Wicked thoughts and Holy Words.
I. A present power of the wicked man—he thinks. The ideas and purposes which fill his mind concerning himself, his fellow-men, and God, are the result of a mental process just as the potter’s vessel is the result of a certain manipulating process. His thoughts are the result of the exercise of a God-given power, just as the potter’s vessel is the result of a power which has been given to him by God. From the same source comes the power to think and the power to turn the wheel. But although the power to think comes from God, it rests with the man as to what kind of thoughts shall be the outcome of that power. God holds him responsible for the use which he makes of the power given him. It would be useless for the potter to say that the vessel which leaves his hand took its form by chance—we hold him responsible for the shape which the clay assumes under his hands. And it is equally vain for a man to say that he has no power over his thoughts. God holds him guilty if he thinks thoughts of sin.
II. The thoughts of the wicked are abhorred by God. 1. Because of the harm they do to his own soul. If the body is held bound under the sway of a deadly malady it becomes weak and unable to fulfil the end of its creation, and if it continues long under its influence it dies. So soul-disease and moral death are the result of the rule of evil thoughts to the man who thinks them. He becomes incapable of fulfilling the high spiritual destiny for which God called him into being. 2. Because of the misery they inflict upon others. All the evil words and deeds that have ever been done in the world were once thoughts. While they were only thoughts the harm they inflicted was confined to the thinker of them, but as soon as they became words or deeds the moral poison spread, and others become sufferers from them. God hates whatever will increase the misery of his creatures, and therefore the thoughts of the wicked—those fruitful germs of sin and suffering must be an abomination to Him. 3. Because they are utterly at variance with God’s thoughts and purposes. The thoughts of God toward the wicked themselves are opposed to the thoughts and purposes which they have concerning themselves. God’s thoughts towards them are “thoughts of peace and not of evil” (Jer. xxix. 11). He desires that “the wicked forsake his way” and “return unto Him.” He declares that His thoughts even concerning sinners are as much higher than their thoughts concerning themselves as “the heavens are higher than the earth” (Isa. lv. 7, 8). This is one ground of God’s quarrel with the thoughts of the wicked, that they cross His gracious plans for redeeming them. But—
III. The words of the pure are pleasing to God. Likeness of character draws men together—the pure delight in those who are pure, and the words of a pure man are pleasant to the ear of another man of purity. Pure men are like God in character, and He must find pleasure in those who reflect His own image, and who are one with Him in sympathy. Delighting in them, their words are pleasant unto Him. He delights in them when they take the form of prayer (See Homiletics on [verse 8], page 407). The “prayers of saints” are as sweet incense to Him (Rev. v. 8; viii. 3). They are well-pleasing when they take the form of praise. He has commanded men to render honour where honour is due (Rom. xiii. 7), and when it is rendered to Himself the most worthy to “receive honour and glory and blessing,” it is a most acceptable sacrifice (Lev. vii. 12, Heb. xiii. 15). The words of the pure are pleasant to God when they are spoken to console and bless their fellow-creatures. (On this subject see Homiletics on chap. [xii. 18], page 275.)
outlines and suggestive comments.