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November 1929
T h e
K i n g ’ s
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Reap ing a Golden Harvest By D r . D insdale T. Y ou N g (A Sermon Preached in the Central Hall, Westminster)
dom, of course, is very much more than that, but it is that. And we want to reap a harvest of wisdom, a right apprehension of truths. You know what our method is- here. We always try to find our illustrations in the immediate context.- Let us follow that method this morning, and see if we cannot get a little harvest good out of it. What is the Psalmist thinking about, do you suppose, when he talks about wis dom? He wants a harvest home of wisdom. Whatever else that means, it means precious thoughts, precious truths. There are some remarkable truths about God in this 90th Psalm. There is a wonderful doctrine of God; and where have you not wonderful doctrines of God in this Book? The Bible was written to tell you what God is, and it is worth studying morning, noon and night, because it is God’s portraiture, painted by Himself. What a beautiful thought! That we may have a harvest of wisdom of that sort. Have we set the right way about securing it that we may bring home a harvest of wisdom ? What is there wiser than truths about God ? I do feel in this age that we need to study God more—God in Christ, God as revealed in the Bible, God saving a world of sinners lost, and God willing and waiting to save you and me here and now. But there are some broad truths about God here that are very unpopular today. For in stance, in the previous verse, “Who knoweth the power o f thine anger?” Can God be angry? Yes. There are some men who pose as wise men, who are standing up and ridiculing what they call the old Puritan notion that God is angry with sinners, and that He will damn them unless they repent. Friends, there is something of God’s everlastingness in this Book, and this is God’s Book. It is not my business to read this Book accepting only what I like, and rejecting what I dislike. It is my busi ness to accept all that God reveals. And I put it to you, Bible readers, can you read the Bible yvithout seeing that there is such a thing as God’s anger? Take another illustration. In the very same verse there is this expression, “Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath,” I do not stay to define the distinction between the two points. I am just calling attention to the sub stantial fact that God is not to be trifled with. If we disobey His commands, anger and wrath is upon us. God is angry with the wicked every day, and unless the wicked repent, He will be angry with them through the eternal day. I should be a traitor to your souls if I did not warn you. Is it not wisdom to have a harvest of such thoughts about God? Or, take another illustration. There is a sweet word in the 14th verse, “O satisfy us early with thy mercy.” If there is anger and wrath, there is also mercy with God. That is the brightest jewel in His crown. It says about that quality of God, “He de- lighteth in mercy.” Is there anybody here who says, “I do need God’s mercy ?” Who does not ? I do. But if there is some body here who says, “Oh, preacher, I do need it par ticularly just now,” let me tell you that there is wonder ful mercy in God. You cannot exhaust it. Come to Him,
T e x t : "S o teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”— Psalm 90 :12. Or, as it is in the Revised Version: “So teach us to number our days, that we may get us an heart o f wisdom.” OMEONE says, “What an unsuitable text for a Harvest Festival! It is more suited for a funeral service than to a bright festal gather ing. Is it not a solemn word?” Not at all. This word speaks of the harvest. You say, “I do not see any reference to harvest.” . No, be cause the English does not make it appear. If you had a Jew reading out of the Hebrew Bible this verse, and you said that there was nothing about harvest in it, he would smile at you. Incredible though it may seem, there is a real picture of the harvest field here. This is the Hebrew idea: “So teach us to number our days, that we may come home with the harvest of wisdom.” Those apparently dull words— “that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom ”— really in the Hebrew signified coming back from the har vest field. So that, grim as the text might sound for a harvest festival service, it really is a harvest festival text. If we can spend half an hour, by the good Spirit’s help— and it will be a poor business without, but a grand busi ness with—we shall find two things in this text. A G olden H arvest to be G athered First of all, a golden harvest to be gathered— “So teach us to number our days.” There is nothing melancholy in that. It is a little bit of arithmetic that we should all do well to learn and practice. “That we may Bring home a harvest of wisdom.” The next thing about which we shall have a few words to say is as to how this .harvest is to be secured; and the answer is in the text. “So teach us to number our days,” then we shall come -home with the harvest. So you see that in an apparently dull sort of text there is really an Oriental picture, and the last thing you would have thought to see, you do see if you read it with a scholarly eye—the coming back from the harvest field, and the singing of the harvest home. They have applied their hearts unto wisdom; they have gathered the harvest of wisdom. First, let us look at this golden harvest to be gathered. You have it in one word—Wisdom. There are all sorts of harvests in life; some rubbishy harvests. Oh, what poor harvests some people are reaping! Can you tell me of a finer harvest than that of which my text speaks? If you can, then I shall be pleased to sit at your feet. Wisdom—-what a great place that word has in this Book! ■Bible readers, have you not been struck with the almost dominant place that the word “wisdom” has in the Book? The gathering of the harvest of wisdom, the singing of the harvest home—that is the Hebrew ideal put before us in this text. What is this wisdom? Well, of course, it is, first of all, a right understanding, or, to use a popular word, it is a mentality; or, let me put it in the homeliest terms, it is ideas, of great subjects. Wis
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