Psalms 115:13

He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great.

The equality of small and great

There are thousands of young men and women who retain belief in God, but do not fear Him; cherishing the easy notion that since He is so very good, everything will come right by and by. This is not love. It is something near akin to contempt, and God is not good enough to consent to be despised. Rather let me say that He is too good, too righteous, too mindful of the interests of His children, who can only find salvation in faith and love that are touched with holy fear. God is Love. He so loved the world that He gave His son: His lovingkindness is over all His works; and He includes in His Divine regard both the small and the great.

I. We have here a recognition of the natural inequality of men, “great and small.” Men differ outwardly, and the difference counts for something. But there are deeper differences that count for more: the differences of the mind. Sometimes a massive and majestic frame co-exists with a weak will. Or it may be that a man of feeble appearance, like St. Paul, has a will of tempered steel. And what a force that is. The crowd makes way for one of inflexible determination, and he moves on to the fulfilment of his purpose with something like the inevitableness of fate. As John Foster exclaims, “It is wonderful how the casualties of life bow to a will that will not bow to them, and in the end subserve a purpose which at first they seemed to frustrate.”

II. The impartiality of God. “He will bless both small and great.” We are always being tempted to respect of persons; often we scarcely make pretence of resistance. But the Bible reiterates the statement that God is no respecter of persons. He is sublimely impartial. He is a faithful Creator, a loving Father. He is not dazzled by His own gifts. He considers not the beauty, the stature, the cleverness, which come to men without their seeking; but that inner man, which is expressed in character, and which accepts or rejects eternal love. “He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great.”

III. The blessing of God, that tends to make men equal in spite of differences. Lately I was standing near an elm tree that towered scores of feet above me. No other tree was by to draw attention from its solitary glory. The splendour of its early foliage flashed and darkled in the sunshine, and its giant shadow fell across the field. It was a mighty work of God and dwarfed its surroundings, making the bushes of a neighbouring hedge seem little things indeed. A little later my attention was arrested by tiny blossoms shining in the long lush grass beneath this giant tree. “Bright-eyes” the flowers are called, and the name is descriptive, though I never saw eyes so blue as the petals of these flowers. I plucked one or two, looked up again at the tree, and thought of the contrast. They represented the great and the small. The one had braved the storms of generations, the other lived for a fleeting summer and might be plucked and torn by baby fingers, and yet were they brought into equality by the blessing of Almighty God. Each was perfect in its own order, and it were impossible to say with which Divine power had taken more pains, the elm tree or the bright-eyes. It is a parable: God made the elm tree and the bright-eyes. He made each to fill its place. Each is faithful to its own order. Each equally declares the glory of the Lord. And God has made men “both small and great.” And when in holy fear and reverent love they open their hearts to Him, as the trees and flowers open their hearts to the sunshine, He blesses them by coming in to dwell with them, and His blessing means that they fulfil their destiny and manifest His glory; and herein are they equal. (G. Hawker.)