Deuteronomy 33:3

THE PROTECTING HAND

‘All His saints are in Thy hand.’

Deuteronomy 33:3

The text shows us how elaborately God lays out His whole being as altogether engaged for His own people,—first His heart; then His hand; then His feet; then His lips. ‘Yea, He loved the people; all His saints are in Thy hand: and they sat down at Thy feet; every one shall receive of Thy words.’

I. A saint means three things.—He is (a) a being whom God has set apart for Himself. In this sense David said: ‘I am holy.’ In this sense the whole Church are saints. (b) A saint is a person in whom sanctification is going on. Every one in whom the Holy Ghost is acting at this moment is a saint. Those who are perfected in holiness are saints indeed.

II. Saints are in God’s hands: (1) as property; (2) in order that He may deal with them as He sees fit; (3) in order that He may hold them up; (4) in order that He may keep them always near Him.

III. ‘And they sat down at Thy feet.’—The passage combines the two ideas of rest and teaching.

Rev. Jas. Vaughan.

Illustration

(1) ‘The Divine discipline of life is designed to awaken man to the development of his own powers. The instinct of the eagle in breaking up her nest is to arouse the native energies of her young. The power of flight is in them, but unknown, because it has never been called into play; it is a slumbering faculty, and must be awakened into action. Man’s soul is formed into God’s image by the right action of his spiritual powers, and these powers are only awakened by the activity of God. (1) The great purpose of all spiritual discipline is to render men Divine. By the very constitution of the soul, the Godlike image must be formed by awakening the energies that lie slumbering within. The soul contains in itself the germinal forces of the life it may possess in the future ages. (2) The image of the text suggests the methods of Divine action: the stimulating and the exemplary. The eagle breaks up her nest, and is not the voice of life’s experiences God’s summons to man to rise and live to Him? God sends a shock of change through our circumstances.’

(2) ‘This song presents God’s dealings with Israel from first to last, as well as their sin and the Divine wrath and judgment which follow. See how it maps out their history, as Moses had already told it them in chapter 28. First, God’s goodness is set forth (vv. 7–14); then, their idolatrous wickedness (vv. 15–18); next, their punishment (vv. 19–25); God’s reasons for not utterly destroying them (vv. 26–34); and their redemption at last (vv. 35–43).’

(3) ‘Notice (1) The Divine Love which is the foundation of all security. (2) The guardian care which is extended to all who answer love by love. (3) The docile obedience of those that are thus guarded.’