main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses 20–23.
On verses 20 and 21, see Homiletics on chap. [i. 7–9], and [iv. 1–4].
The Law of God’s Word.
I. The Divine law as a lamp. 1. It is like a lamp because it is portable. A light that cannot be carried from place to place will be useless to a man who has to find his way home in the dark on an uneven road. Life is such a journey, and the commandment of the Lord can be carried in man’s memory and heart: “Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee” (Psa. cxix. 11). 2. Its existence declares that men need light from a source outside themselves. A man’s eyes on a dark night are not sufficient to enable him to find the right road. If he depends simply upon them he will find that the “light within him is darkness” (Luke xi. 35). He must have external help. The existence of God’s revelation in the world proves that man has not enough light within him to guide his feet into the way of peace. His own spiritual perception will not enable him to find his way through the night to eternal day. 3. It is in constant requisition. The position and relation of our globe to the sun makes it certain that night will constantly succeed the day. And while the night continues to follow day the lamp will be needed to illumine the darkness. The Divine lamp will never be out of use while temptation, and doubt, and sin, and ignorance beset the path of man, as certainly as the revolution of the globe brings the night.
II. The commandment as a guide. “When thou goest, it shall lead thee” (verse 22). Where leading is promised ignorance is implied. The man who trusts to another to guide him acknowledges by the act that the guide knows more than he does. Scripture takes for granted that man is ignorant. Its existence implies that man needs information and direction concerning his life.
III. The commandment as a guard. “When thou sleepest, it shall keep thee.” A keeper, or guard, implies danger in general, and in this instance in particular. There is a general danger in times of pestilence, and there is a special danger in some places and under some circumstances. There is a danger common to all vessels when sailing the ocean, but there are some parts which are especially dangerous. So it is with men in relation to sin. There is the general liability to fall into sin common to all men, but there are dangers which more especially beset youth and inexperience, and there is one sin above all others which is terrible in its effects and ruinous to the whole man. The text applies to a general keeping from the common danger and to a special keeping from this special danger (verse 24).
IV. The commandment is a keeper, a guide, and a lamp to those only who keep it. A man binds his sandal upon his foot and it keeps his foot, because it has itself been kept in its right place. There is a mutual keeping. There can be no keeping by the word unless there is a keeping of the word. A greater than Solomon has told us this truth. Our Lord, in His parable of the sower, reminds us of those wayside hearers who, not keeping the word, were not kept by it, and of those who, like the rocky or thorny ground, kept it only for a while and were only kept by it until the time of temptation scorched them, and their profession withered away (Matt. xiii. 1–7). And our Lord Himself used the commandment in the hour of His temptation to keep Him. To all the advances of the tempter he replied, “It is written.”
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 20. The first feature that arrests attention in this picture is, that effects are attributed to the law of a mother which only God’s law can produce. The inference is obvious and sure. It is assumed that the law which a mother instils is the Word of God dwelling richly in her own heart, and that she acts as a channel to convey that Word to the heart of her children. To assume it as actually done is the most impressive method of enjoining it. Parents are, by the constitution of things, in an important sense mediators between God and their children for a time. . . . Your children are, by grace, let into you, so as to drink in what you contain. The only safety is, that you be by grace let into Christ, so that what they get from you shall be, not what springs within you, but what flows into you from the Springhead of holiness. To the children it is the law of their mother, and therefore they receive it; but in substance it is the truth from Jesus, and to receive it is life.—Arnot.
We have already noticed (ch. i. 8) the fifth commandment as comprehending the first five; just as the tenth commandment comprehends the latter five. They ought to be painted so in churches. Handed down so, we verily believe, to Moses, each table must have carried five commandments. Honouring our father, in all the broad meaning of that term, is the first commandment “in,” not “with” (as in Eng. version), “promise” (Eph. vi. 2).—Miller.