By the late Rev. NEIL CAMERON.
WE see here the great depth into which godly Asaph came at this time when he was asking such despairing questions as these—Will the Lord cast off for ever? Will He be favourable no more? Is His mercy clean gone for ever? Doth His promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies? These were not sounds from his tongue, but were deep experiences. But you find that in his difficulty, he began to remember the things of old, what God did in trying times in the past, and that helped him very much, and that is why we have got the whole Bible—that we might remember the things of God and what He has done. Referring to the words of our text—“Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known”—we shall notice a few illustrations of this from God’s Word. If we look to the extraordinary experiences of that eminent man of God—Job, you find a very distinct illustration of what we have here. It is easy enough to see that Job lost all that he had in the world in one day, and it is easy enough to see after that that he lost his health and strength and was in absolute misery, but these things could not be understood or even guessed by any person in the world, why God dealt in such a way. “Thy footsteps are not known.” It was after the deliverance came that it was made known why God dealt in this way with the most upright and God-fearing man in the world. His footsteps were hid, no person could guess (not but that some tried, and spake too, saying that Job was a hypocrite). Even Eliphaz said some hard things against Job, and blamed him for having done what caused God to have dealt with him thus.
It was not at all for some special sin in Job, although he was a sinner like other men, that he was put through such awful depth and misery as he was. Men in the world who knew Job well, would certainly be amazed why God laid such a burden on the most upright and God-fearing man of his day, and we ought to bear that in mind in all the afflictions that we meet with in the world. We see the reason God dealt in this most extraordinary way was to prove for ever that grace is of such a nature that Satan or wicked men cannot overcome it. You find the reason that Job was so terribly exercised was because Satan called him a hypocrite, and God put him to the test to show that it was not possible for either Satan or wicked men to overcome grace. The result of the test was—Satan was spoiled and grace came off victorious, and this was a lesson to encourage men—men that have got grace, that they may depend on it that faith will overcome in all the trials and difficulties that they may meet with in the world.
Another instance, which is, if anything at all, more like the truth we have here than the one we mentioned, “Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known”—is the case of Joseph. God told Abraham that his seed would be in a strange land, and that they would deal ill with them and that He would bring them out of that land in such a time. The time was drawing nigh when they would have to go to this strange land according to God’s purpose and the first thing that appeared was, God brought about in His Providence that Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other sons and because of this, envy got up—that worst spirit out of Hell—the spirit that crucified the Lord of Glory. His brethren hated him and that ended in his being sold as a slave down into Egypt, which certainly was a dark providence indeed. These were certainly steps in the deep waters. After that things became more promising, for you find that his master, Potiphar, made him manager over all that he had, but after that again you find him down in irons, bound in chains in a prison and this was probably what left him lame to the day of his death and all this was on account of his integrity and high moral character. He may have been many years in that dungeon in Egypt and surely these were dark steps indeed. You find that God provided a way by which He would take him out of the dungeon in the ordinary course of providence, by two of the servants of Pharaoh having a dream, each in the one night in the prison. The interpretation of these dreams in the end of two years brought Joseph, in connection with another dream, to the notice of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, who commanded that he should be brought out of prison. He interpreted the dream of Pharaoh—seven years of famine and seven years of plenty and advised him and his counsellors concerning these things and they decided that there was no man with such wisdom as Joseph and he was made ruler over Egypt the very day he was brought out of the prison. Who could see these footsteps while Joseph was going through them? Who could see God’s purpose being fulfilled to the very letter in them? And you find that the very day on which these people departed from Egypt was 400 years after that—the very day in which God purposed to do it. What a mysterious and amazing way God took to bring about His own purpose and how dark it must have been to any who might look at these steps of divine providence.
We have recorded in the Bible many events illustrating the words of our text, which we would do well to take heed to and to meditate upon, but you have something that is greater than all other steps, that is the step He took in order that He might save with an everlasting salvation a number of Adam’s lost race. He revealed immediately man fell that there was to be a Saviour—the Seed of the woman—but how dark and mysterious for ages down through history and how conflicting to the carnal wisdom of men, the promises concerning the Messiah were. Some of these predictions stated that He would have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth, that all kings would bow down before Him, that all nations should serve Him and that He would reign on the throne of David for ever. These would suit the carnal pride of the Jews very well, in having such a great man as this. But there were other descriptions given of Him, which described Him as “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”—a man who was to pass through great sorrows and trials—who was to be rejected and despised of men and the reason was—”The Lord laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.” “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed.” These two predictions to human reason are quite contrary the one to the other. He was born in a stable in Bethlehem—this man whom the Jews expected to come in a very glorious way—no human being taking any notice of it at all, but the angels of glory declaring: “Unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Men were dumb.
You find Him going through the world and the people, especially those who were the Jewish Church in these days, blankly refusing to have this man as the promised Messiah and they could point out to you in the Scriptures that such and such things were promised concerning the Messiah, that He was to be a King, a Governor, nations obeying Him and so on and who was this Carpenter of Nazareth with a few fishermen following him? There were steps here that were not known—”Thy footsteps are not known,” and then you find Him going down to the grave—an ignominious grave as far as men were concerned, for He died as a malefactor. You find on the day of Pentecost, however, how God began to bring His own footsteps to light, when the Holy Spirit was poured forth and three thousand of these very Jews, who were before probably crying: “Away with Him, away with Him,” were brought to realise that they had put to death their own Prince of Life. They began to see the footsteps of God in this—life and immortality were brought to light through the gospel and now it was revealed what was meant by kings bowing down and all nations serving Him. It was the sending of the gospel abroad to the heathen and Gentiles that was to bring this about, for nations turned from idols to serve the one, living and true God.
It is not at the time that blinded men see the footsteps of God in thousands of ways even in daily life itself. His dealing with His own Church in the world, in every age, is wonderful and mysterious. His people are a despised people, as their Lord was, in every age—they are too low for mighty men and women to have anything to do with. That is true in our generation, for there are plenty of kinds of Christianity you can have, but not this despised kind—it is too strict, too narrow—it cannot praise Scribes and Pharisees, it only warns them and that does not suit the carnal mind. “Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.” That has been taking place in every age in connection with His own Church—mysterious dealings, which afterwards were brought to light and things have taken place in our day too, which were not easily seen and which have not fully developed yet.