Psalms 81:13

Psa 81:13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, [and] Israel had walked in my ways!

Ver. 13. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me] A wish after the manner of men; to set forth God’s great desire of our welfare, which he here uttereth, as it were, with a sigh and a groan.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa_81:13-14

Oh that My people had hearkened unto Me, and Israel had walked in My ways!

Jehovahs complaint against the condition and conduct of His people

I.

The humiliating position in which the Church is supposed to be standing towards its enemies. Think of the damnable heresies and apostasies from truth, which the abused name of religion is employed to cover, and the consummate wickedness with which the profession of Christianity has been converted by iniquitous laws into a tyranny and a trade. Look at every aspect of society, examine every walk of life, and what do you behold, but impiety triumphant in the very capital of Christianity? Take the most favourable estimate that Christian charity will allow, and yet how feeble in influence and numbers is the Church of Christ compared with its enemies! And if, after two thousand years, such be our position, how solemnly does it behove us to ask in what way this humiliating state of things is to be accounted for.

II. The sinful cause to which its humiliation is ascribed.

1. God has commanded His ministers to go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature; and, in order that they might do so, His people are enjoined to send them forth, for how, says the apostle, can they preach except they be sent? And when the Church, in the warmth of her first love, responded to her Lords commands, consecrating her energies arid her treasures freely to His service, city after city, kingdom after kingdom, and one system of error after another, fell vanquished at her feet. But, corrupted by covetousness and love of the world, His people grew weary of hearkening unto Him, and to walk in His ways, and consequently soon lost the conquests that apostles won.

2. But, besides sending forth ministers to preach the Word, God has commanded His people, individually, to labour for the spread of truth. But the individual responsibility of Christians has been almost forgotten; while a few are making personal exertions in Gods service, how many hearers and even professors of the Gospel are no more concerned by any personal effort to extinguish the rebellion against God, than so many statues on a building wrapt in flames!

3. Again; as it is impossible by error to destroy error, and as the only antidote to darkness is light, Jesus Christ has commanded His followers to preserve the faith of the Gospel inviolably pore; warning them in admonitions of awful solemnity against adding to, or taking away, a tittle from His Word. And from how many sinful practices, how many debasing sentiments, how many idle ceremonies, how many bitter controversies and persecutions would the Church have been saved, had Israel walked in His ways, had His people hearkened to His voice. But, preferring the wisdom of man to that which cometh down from above, they have altered the constitution of the Church, perverted its ordinances, and corrupted its doctrines, suffering foreign mixtures, careless omissions, and presumptuous additions, to deface the beauty and destroy the simplicity of the truth.

4. Could the Christian Church, however, when she threw away the unity of faith, have preserved the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, she might, possibly, soon have recovered what she had lost; but converting every difference of creed into an occasion of division and strife, she advanced further in disobedience, and, consequently, further and further in weakness and disgrace.

5. Moreover, as the world is less likely to be subdued by precept than example, Christ has said to His disciples, Let your light shine before men, that they seeing your good works may glorify your Father which is in heaven. And had the Church paid a becoming regard to His repeated injunctions upon this subject, she would have appeared in every conflict as bright as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners.

6. And along with a far higher degree of holiness, would there not have been among the people of God, had they hearkened to His voice, an infinitely larger amount of fervent and effectual prayer?

III. The affecting manner in which both the cause and the consequences are by God himself deplored.

1. From all that God has spoken or accomplished, it is evident that His love for His Church is infinite and unchangeable. It is His husbandry and His vineyard, the garden He delights to water, His inheritance, and the place of His rest, the wife of His bosom, His peculiar treasure, His crown, His portion, and His joy. Next to His own glory, nothing, therefore, is so near to His heart, as the prosperity of His people; and while upon the warlike enterprises which historians and poets delight to celebrate, He looks with comparative indifference, the minutest victories of His Church have an everlasting record in heaven, and are celebrated by the angels of God in songs of ecstatic praise.

2. Nor must we exclude from our interpretation of this language the idea of infinite pity H a perishing world. In secular contests the triumph of one party is the disgrace, misery, or destruction of the other; and most justly and humanely has it been said by a great living warrior, nothing is so calamitous as a victory excepting a defeat. But to extend the conquests of the Church is to push forward the boundary of life and happiness into the realms of darkness and death; to subdue her enemies, to bring the haters of the Lord to submission is to save them with an everlasting salvation; to leave them unsubdued is to destroy them for ever. (J. E. Giles.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa 81:13. O that my people had hearkened unto me — In this way does God testify his good-will to, and concern for, the welfare and happiness of these most refractory, disobedient, and obstinate sinners. The expressions are very affecting, and much like those he uttered by Moses concerning them, Deu 5:29, “O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever.” Or like those which Christ breathed forth over the same people, when, beholding the city, he wept over it, and said, “If thou hadst known in this thy day the things which belong to thy peace,” &c. Or those other words of similar import, “O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! how often would I have gathered thy children together,” &c. All these, and such like passages, manifest the tender mercies of God, and show that he is not only careful to provide for mankind the means of salvation, but that he grieves, speaking after the manner of men, and mourns, with paternal affection, over them, when their frowardness and obstinacy disappoint the efforts of his love. They demonstrate two things; 1st, How unwilling he is that any should perish, and how desirous that all should come to repentance; and, 2d, What enemies sinners are to themselves; and what an aggravation it will be of their misery, that they might have been happy on such easy terms, but would not.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. (Psa 81:13) If my people would (but) hearken to me (and) Israel in my ways would walk. The conditional particle at the beginning, although not the same with that in Psa 81:8, is construed in the same way, but with a stronger optative meaning. To listen to God's teaching and commands implies a docile and obedient spirit. To walk in his ways is to act as he approves and has required.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

81:13-14 God wants to give his children his goodness, but only if they listen (Isa 1:18-19; 28:12; 48:18-19; see Deut 6:3). • God promises to subdue the enemies (Deut 9:3) of those who walk the paths of obedience and loyalty. He will also richly feed his people (Isa 1:19).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

God by his word calleth all, but his secret election appointeth who shall hear with fruit.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 13. O that my people had hearkened unto me, - Israel had walked in my ways] Nothing can be more plaintive than the original; sense and sound are surprisingly united. I scruple not to say to him who understands the Hebrew, however learned, he has never found in any poet, Greek or Latin, a finer example of deep-seated grief, unable to express itself in appropriate words without frequent interruptions of sighs and sobs, terminated with a mournful cry.

לו עמי שמע לי

ישראי בדרכי יהלכו

Lo ammi shomea li

Yishrael bidrachi yehallechu!

He who can give the proper guttural pronunciation to the letter ע ain; and gives the ו vau, and the י yod, their full Asiatic sound, not pinching them to death by a compressed and worthless European enunciation; will at once be convinced of the propriety of this remark.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13. O if my people had hearkened to me! By the honorable designation which God gives to the people of Israel, He exposes the more effectually their shameful and disgraceful conduct. Their wickedness was doubly aggravated, as will appear from the consideration, that although God called them to be his people, they differed nothing from those who were the greatest strangers to him. Thus he complains by the Prophet Isaiah,

“The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.” (Isaiah 1:3)

The Hebrew particle לו, lu, which I have rendered O if! is not to be understood as expressing a condition, but a wish; and therefore God, I have no doubt, like a man weeping and lamenting, cries out, O the wretchedness of this people in wilfully refusing to have their best interests carefully provided for! He assumes the character of a father, and observing, after having tried every possible means for the recovery of his children, that their condition is utterly hopeless, he uses the language of one saddened, as it were, with sighing and groaning; not that he is subject to human passions, but because he cannot otherwise express the greatness of the love which he bears towards us. The Prophet seems to have borrowed this passage from the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32:29, where the obstinacy of the people is bewailed in almost the same words: “Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” He means tacitly to upbraid the Jews, and to impress upon their minds the truth, that their own perverseness was the only cause which prevented them from enjoying a state of great outward prosperity. If it is objected, that God in vain and without ground utters this complaint, since it was in his power to bend the stiff necks of the people, and that, when he was not pleased to do this, he had no reason to compare himself to a man deeply grieved; I answer, that he very properly makes use of this style of speaking on our account, that we may seek for the procuring cause of our misery nowhere but in ourselves. We must here beware of mingling together things which are totally different — as widely different from each other as heaven is distant from the earth. God, in coming down to us by his word, and addressing his invitations to all men without exception, disappoints nobody. All who sincerely come to him are received, and find from actual experience that they were not called in vain. At the same time, we are to trace to the fountain of the secret electing purpose of God this difference, that the word enters into the heart of some, while others only hear the sound of it. And yet there is no inconsistency in his complaining, as it were, with tears, of our folly when we do not obey him. In the invitations which he addresses to us by the external word, he shows himself to be a father; and why may he not also be understood as still representing himself under the image of a father in using this form of complaint? In Ezekiel 18:32, he declares with the strictest regard to truth, “I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth,” provided in the interpretation of the passage we candidly and dispassionately take into view the whole scope of it. God has no pleasure in the death of a sinner: How? because he would have all men turned to himself. But it is abundantly evident, that men by their own free-will cannot turn to God, until he first change their stony hearts into hearts of flesh: yea, this renovation, as Augustine judiciously observes, is a work surpassing that of the creation itself. Now what hinders God from bending and framing the hearts of all men equally in submission to him? Here modesty and sobriety must be observed, that instead of presuming to intrude into his incomprehensible decrees, we may rest contented with the revelation which he has made of his will in his word. There is the justest ground for saying that he wills the salvation of those to whom that language is addressed, (Isaiah 21:12,) “Come unto me, and be ye converted.” In the second part of the verse before us, we have defined what it is to hear God. To assent to what he speaks would not be enough; for hypocrites will grant at once that whatever proceeds from his mouth is true, and will affect to listen just as if an ass should bend its ears. But the clause is intended to teach us that we can only be said to hear God, when we submit ourselves to his authority.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(13, 14) Hearken . . . subdue.—The verbs should be taken in a future sense, “Oh that my people would hearken . . . I should soon subdue,” &c. The poet changes from reminiscences of the past to the needs of the present.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13. O that my people were hearkening unto me,

That Israel would walk in my ways!

13–16. Yet God’s mercy is inexhaustible. Even now if Israel would obey Him, He would subdue their enemies, and bless them abundantly. Cp. Isa_48:17-19.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I should soon have subdued their enemies,.... The Canaanites, and others: this he would have done in a very little time, or at once, and that easily, and without any trouble; he would quickly have humbled them, and brought them on their knees, as the word (g) signifies, to terms of peace; for when a man's ways please the Lord, he makes his enemies to be at peace with him, Pro 16:7 so those that hearken to the voice of Christ, and walk in his ways, he subdues their iniquities, and will bruise Satan under their feet shortly, and make them more than conquerors: through himself, over the world; the men and things of it he has overcome:

and turned my hand against their adversaries; that troubled, distressed, and oppressed them; and it is a righteous thing with God to render tribulation to them that trouble his people; he turns his chastising hand off of them, which sometimes is heavy upon them, and presses them sore, and turns it in a way of wrath and vindictive justice against their adversaries; and so the Targum,

"and turned the stroke of my power against their adversaries;''

this is the lighting down of his arm with the indignation of his anger, which is intolerable, Isa 30:30.

(g) "flecterem", Cocceius.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Oh that my people had hearkened unto me - This passage is designed mainly to show what would have been the consequences if the Hebrew people had been obedient to the commands of God, Psa 81:14-16. At the same time, however, it expresses what was the earnest desire - the wish - the preference of God, namely, that they had been obedient, and had enjoyed his favor. This is in accordance with all the statements, all the commands, all the invitations, all the warnings, in the Bible. In the entire volume of inspiration there is not one command addressed to people to walk in the ways of sin; there is not one statement that God desires they should do it; there is not one intimation that he wishes the death of the sinner. The contrary is implied in all the declarations which God has made - in all his commands, warnings, and invitations - in all his arrangements for the salvation of people. See Deu 5:29; Deu 32:29-30; Isa 48:18; Eze 18:23, Eze 18:32; Eze 33:11; 2Pe 3:9; Luk 19:42.

And Israel had walked in my ways! - Had kept my commandments; had been obedient to my laws. When people, therefore, do not walk in the ways of God it is impossible that they should take refuge, as an excuse for it, in the plea that God desires this, or that he commands it, or that he is pleased with it, or that he approves it. There is no possible sense in which this can be true; in every sense, and on every account, he prefers that people should be obedient, and not disobedient; good, and not bad; happy, and not miserable; saved, and not lost. Every doctrine of theology should be held and interpreted in consistency with this as a fundamental truth. That there are things which are difficult to be explained on the supposition that this is true, must be admitted; but what truth is there in reference to which there are not difficulties to be explained? And is there anything in this, or in any of the truths of the Bible, which more demands explanation than the facts which are actually occurring under the government of God: the fact that sin and misery have been allowed to come into the universe; the fact that multitudes constantly suffer whom God could at once relieve?

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 13. O that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! The condescending love of God expresses itself in painful regrets for Israel's sin and punishment. Such were the laments of Jesus over Jerusalem. Certain doctrinalists find a stumbling stone in such passages, and set themselves to explain them away, but to men in sympathy with the divine nature the words and the emotions are plain enough. A God of mercy cannot see men heaping up sorrow for themselves through their sins without feeling his compassion excited toward them.

Ver. 13. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, etc. God sometimes doth not mind his children when they cry, that they may hereby take occasion to remember how oft he hath cried and they have not minded him. Doth not the Lord cry out to his people of duty and they do not hear him? Doth he not complain here of this neglect, not only as a dishonour, but as a grief unto him? No marvel then if God let his people cry out of misery, and doth not hear them. The Lord shuts his ear that we might consider how we have shut our ears; yea, he shuts his ears that he may open ours. We are moved to hear and answer the call and command of God, though we find that he doth not hear nor answer our call and cry. If the Lord should always be swift to hear us, how slow should we be in hearing him, and while we have our desires, forget most of our duties. Abraham Wright.

Ver. 13. Oh that my people had hearkened, etc. God speaks as if he were comforted when he is but heard, or as if we comforted him when we hear him. God beseecheth us, and speaks entreaties to us, that his counsels and commands may be heard: Oh that my people had hearkened unto me. The Lord tells them indeed it would have proved their consolation (Ps 81:14): I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. Yet while he speaks so pathetically, he seems to include his own consolation in it as well as theirs. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me: it would have been good for them, and it would have given high content to myself. Joseph Caryl.

Ver. 13. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, etc. There is to us a deep mysteriousness in all this; but the desire of God for our salvation and right moral state, is here most obviously manifested: and let us proceed on that which is obvious, not on that which is obscure. Thomas Chalmers.

Ver. 13. Walked in my ways. None are found in the ways of God, but those who have hearkened to his words. W. Wilson.

Ver. 13. The excellent estate of an obedient believer.

I. Enemies subdued.

II. Enjoyments perpetuated.

III. Abundance possessed.

Ver. 13-14. The sin and loss of the backslider.

Psalms 81:14*

Ver. 13-14. The sin and loss of the backslider.

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13. Oh that—So Christ lamented over Jerusalem. Mat_23:37. God sees the magnitude of the evils incurred, and the excellence of the blessings lost, and his regrets are commensurate.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Oh that my people had hearkened unto me! rather, would hearken unto me! (see Professor Driver"s "Hebrew Tenses," and compare the Revised Version). And Israel had walked in my ways! rather would walk!

God"s lamentation over man"s lost opportunities.

"Oh that my people," etc.! Among the saddest words ever spoken are those we utter concerning what might have been. Lost opportunities; neglected duties; mischance that was within a hairbreadth of good fortune; misunderstandings that a little candour or patience would have prevented; voices we do not listen to, but whose echoes haunt us; the joy, wealth, success, love, happiness, within our grasp, if we had not let them slip; what a weight of meaning, depth of sadness, these put into the words, "It might have been"! How many lives are wearing themselves out in the gloom of failure or disappointment! what countless multitudes have closed in sorrow and shame, whose whole course would have been different, if at some "parting of the ways," perhaps in the early morning of life, they had not taken the wrong turn! A more awful depth of meaning and pathos belongs to the closing verses of this psalm. God"s lamentation over man"s lost opportunities. We speak of what might have been and has been; God speaks of what ought to have been on men"s part, and what surely would have been on his.

I GOD"S VIEW OF HUMAN LIFE. The Bible mode of regarding human life differs from the way in which we naturally look at our own lives, by the same distinction which marks off Bible history from ordinary history, Bible poetry from ordinary poetry, Bible morality or ethics from those of ordinary moralistssupreme universal reference to God. Account for it as you please, the Scriptures in this respect stand apart from all other literature. Man naturally puts himself, as the old astronomers the earth, as the centre of all things. The Bible teaches him that God is the Centre as well as Source of all life. (Rom_11:36) Even religious people talk and think of religion as an important element in human life, essential to its true happiness, neglect of which is guilty and disastrous. The Bible speaks of and to men as made for God, missing the whole purpose and blessing of life if estranged from him. So while we look at what is, God"s Word shows him beholding what ought to be. We picture what might have been, he tells us what would have been; we hope or fear what may be, he reveals what will be. We are absorbed in the present; God shows us its root in the past, its fruit in the future. (Gal_6:7, Gal_6:8) It may be asked What room, then, for repentance and pardon? Is not this to throw us back under the dominion and condemnation of law? Answer: God"s laws are of two sorts: the law of love and duty, fulfilled by willing obedience, which, therefore, man can disobey and break; and natural laws spiritual as well as material which cannot be broken. For God to set them aside would be to destroy, not to save. E.g. the thief, the liar, the drunkard, may repent of his sin, and God will pardon it; but the restoration of confidence, and conscious sense of honesty, or the regaining of health destroyed by intemperance, can come only by the practice of the appropriate virtues.

II THE REAL TURNING POINT OF LIFE. God"s own voice here sets forth the blessings which Israel not only might, but certainly would, have enjoyed, if they had not flung them away wilfully, ungratefully, mealy (vers. 14-16). What, then, hindered? Where was the false step parting of the ways"? Answer: vers. 11, 12. This was the secret of all Israel"s calamities and misery. Note that the Revised Version here uses the present and the future (vers. 13-16). The Hebrew equally admits this rendering; nothing forbids our combining both meanings. But the reference of the whole psalm is to the past. It begins with a shout of joy, referring to the Feast of Trumpets, the beginning of the (civil) year, and the Feast of Tabernacles, at full moon of the same month. Then looks back to the institution of these festivals, the Law of Moses, the deliverance from Egypt. Then to the whole subsequent history one long record of rebellion and ingratitude. (Jer_22:21) The LESSON is for us etc.! (1Co_10:11) By "turning point of life" I mean not some one fatal crisis, at some special time (though such there are, in many lives), but the guiding force, determining motive, master principle, which gives character to each day as well as to the whole life; makes each step an advance in the right path, or an error. Obedience to the voice of God.

1. In his Word. (Joh_10:27 Joh_12:47-50)

2. Conscience, which is the inward echo of God"s voice.

3. His providence.

4. His Spirit, who alone can give the hearing ear and understanding heart. Here is something sadder yet: "Israel would none of me". (Joh_5:40, 42 8:47)

To disobey, to wander, to be lost, you need not resolve on self-destruction; you need only to be careless, let things drift, like one who sleeps when his boat is drifting towards the rapids. You can be careless. God cares, "Oh that my people,". (Luk_19:41, 42 Mat_23:37)

Vers. 13-16. What might have been.

These verses tell what Israel missed, but might have had. And they are written for our learning. Note

I WHAT GOD WAS PREPARED TO DO FOR THEM.

1. Subdue their enemies.

2. Discomfit their adversaries.

3. Conversions should have been numerous.

4. Eternal life should have been theirs.

5. And fulness of joy.

And in reference to men now: God waits to be gracious and to do all for them that corresponds to the blessings told of here.

II BUT NONE OF THIS CAME TO PASS; ONLY THE VERY OPPOSITE. In their character, conduct, and condition, things went from bad to worse. Enemies not subdued; their adversaries became stronger; sin rampant; their days few and evil; want and misery in their dwellings.

III HOW SUCH RESULT CAME ABOUT.

1. It was not God"s will. Cf. the tears of Christ over Jerusalem. "How often would I have gathered thee," etc.!

2. But it was Israel"s own fault. (Vers. 11, 12) Thus it ever is.

IV THE SORROW OF IT ALL. God dishonoured; the Holy Spirit grieved; their children and their neighbours led astray; themselves given up of God; and all this need not have been. Dread the doom of such. S.C.

The sorrow of God.

Occasioned by this he could not do for his people what he would. He would have delivered them from their foes, and fed them with the finest of the wheat. They, by their conduct, compelled him to withhold his hand, and even to smite instead of bestow. Compare the sorrow of Christ when looking from Olivet upon Jerusalem. He mourns over what he would have done for its people; but they "would not.

I GOD"S JOY IN THE BLESSING OF HIS PEOPLE. Their temporal blessing, when the state of their minds and hearts makes his giving temporal blessings the highest moral and spiritual good to them. It is not merely that God "gives us all things richly to enjoy;" it is that he loves to give; he finds his joy in giving. Illustrate from the provisions made for Israel.

II GOD"S SORROW BECAUSE OF THE RESTRAINT OF HIS BLESSINGS. Sometimes he cannot give temporal blessings, because the state of mind and heart of his people would turn them into moral and spiritual curses. See in the case of Israel; how vain, self-confident, and proud Israel would surely have become, if, taking no notice of its character, its wilfulness, and murmuring, and rebellion, God had showered all conceivable good on the nation! It is the grief of love that it must restrain its gifts lest they should be misused.

APPLICATION. If we lack good things that we desire, and think we need, let us never explain the lack by the Divine unwillingness to bless, or by any vague notions of Divine "sovereignty." God would give these things to us if, in view of our best interests, he could. He is to be thought of as grieved that he cannot. And the thought of his grief should incite us to get rid of the hindrance that is on our side. To the trustful, humble, obedient soul God"s richest benedictions may safely come. R.T.

HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 13, 14. (compared with Isa_48:18) Man"s inconsideration.

I GOD HAS SPOKEN AND REVEALED TO MAN THE WAY OF LIFE. God"s ways are the ways of life.

1. God"s way is the way of law. Physical and moral and spiritual. "Whatsoever a man soweth," etc.; "To him that hath shall be given," etc.

2. God"s way is the way of love.

3. God"s way is the way of faith. So that through it he dispenses pardon, strength, and comfort.

II THE SIN OF MAN IS INCONSIDERATION OF GOD"S WAYS. This leads to:

1. A neglect of the Divine rule of life. An inconsiderate man is a man without understanding, a man without a steadfast purpose, given over to pleasure and selfishness.

2. A forfeiture of the Divine help against our difficulties. An inconsiderate man cannot accept or use the Divine help.

III GOD"S LAMENT OVER THIS INCONSIDERATION.

1. It hindered him from a benevolent exercise of his power on their behalf. "I gave them up to the stubbornness of their heart:" that was all God could do for them.

2. They are defeated by their enemies in the battle of life. It is only by God"s help we can conquer in the great struggle we have to maintain.

3. God could not nourish them with heavenly food. (Deu_32:13) The finest of the wheat and honey out of the rock. Like the prodigal, they lived upon the husks. S.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

oh, that my people would walk in my paths

God wanting the people to obey him is spoken of as if he wanted the people to walk on his paths or roads. AT: "I wish that they would obey my laws" (See: Metaphor)

turn my hand against

Here "hand" represents Yahweh's power. AT: "I would destroy" or "I would defeat" (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

walk

hand

oppress

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

after their heart’s fantasies Heb. בשרירותלבם, after the views of their heart, as (above 5: 9): “because of those who lie in wait for me (שוררי).”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.