The psalmist (Psalm 73.)was much perplexed and perturbed in spirit "when he saw the prosperity of the wicked." He was disposed to think that he had "cleansed his heart in vain," and in vain "washed his hands in innocency" (Psalm 73:13). But on further and deeper thought, he arrived at a sound conclusion. When he" went into the sanctuary of God," i.e. when he looked at the matter in the light of Divine truth, then he "understood their end." If any one should wonder at Saul's continued prosperity, should wonder where God was that a man whose hands were so stained with blood should so long be seated on a throne, he would only have to wait and see the end to know that "verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth." We learn from these verses -

I. THAT WE CANNOT TELL WHETHER HUMAN LIFE WILL PROVE TO BE ENVIABLE TILL IT IS CONCLUDED. The ancients said, "Call no man happy till he is dead." The epigram was the outcome of the fact, finding frequent illustration, that men who were supposed to be most enviable proved, after all, to be those with whom few would willingly exchange conditions. In the heyday of Saul's power and prominence there must have been many Israelites who wished that such happy fortune had been theirs; that the kingly lot had fallen on their tribe, on their family, on themselves (1 Samuel 10:20, 21). But who, now, would wish to have been the first King of Israel, to have run his checkered course, to have been driven to such sad and guilty shifts, and to have terminated a career in such ruinous dishonour as that which closed his clouded life? To be miserably beaten, to be utterly routed in battle (ver. 3), to be driven to suicide in order to avoid the worst abuses (ver. 4), to know, before he died, that his house was perishing with him (ver. 5), to be dishonoured by the enemy after death (ver. 9), to have his body taken and exposed in the temple of an idol (ver. 10), - all this was the last extreme of humiliation and disaster. Envy not those whose outward career seems enviable. Who knows what miseries are within; what madness reclines at the royal hearth; what wretchedness reposes under the princely roof; what jealousy drives in the gilded chariot; what insatiable hatred or inappeasable remorse sits down to the sumptuous meal? Who knows in what black clouds of calamity the sun of human greatness will set? Who can tell whether the end will not, like Saul's, be such an end that all the brightness and the excellency that went before will be utterly eclipsed, and that all men will join to say, "What a miserable man was he!"

II. THAT ONE MAN'S SIN INVOLVES MANY MEN'S SUFFERING. Because Saul had sinned, "the men of Israel fled .... and fell down slain" (ver. 1). Because their faulty king had fallen, "the men of Israel... forsook their cities... and the Philistines came and dwelt in them" (ver. 7). Sinful sovereigns have entailed heavy penalties on suffering nations. But it is not kings only that cause human hearts to bleed, and that fill human lives with trouble and distress. How many thousands of homes are the abodes of sorrow, of keen disappointment, of cruel suffering, of dark foreboding, because one soul has forsaken God and made shipwreck of a good conscience!

III. THAT OUTWARD FORTUNE IS NO SAFE CRITERION OF HUMAN CHARACTER. Jonathan perished on the same field with Saul; the brave and generous son with his jealous and murderous father! "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24).

IV. THAT MEN SOMETIMES TACITLY CONFESS THEIR OWN FOLLY, "They sent... to carry tidings unto their idols" (ver. 9) - to inform their gods! Surely they were thus condemning their own idolatry. How often do we condemn ourselves! - C.

The great lesson teaches the transitoriness of all human dignity and glory. Where are the dukes of Edom now? Who knows the names of Timnah, Allah, Jetheth? How far are our own names known? What will be thought of them in the next century? Men are not to be estimated by their renown, but by them in the next goodness and their local influence. In the Christian Church we have come to a higher order of names than was ever known in secular history. Men may now be called sons of God, saints, slaves of Jesus Christ, inheritors of the world of light: let us aspire after these higher titles, for they never perish. The titles which men give soon expire: the titles which God confers are vital with His own Eternity.

(J. Parker, D. D.)