He who implanted the ear, won’t he hear? He who formed the eye, won’t he see?
He who disciplines the nations, won’t he punish? He who teaches man knows.
Yahweh knows the thoughts of man, that they are futile.
Parallel Translations
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He who implanted the ear, won’t he hear? He who formed the eye, won’t he see?
He who disciplines the nations, won’t he punish? He who teaches man knows.
Yahweh knows the thoughts of man, that they are futile.
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He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?
He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?
The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.
Show all 3 translations
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He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not see?
He that instructeth nations, shall not He correct? even He that teacheth man knowledge?
The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.
Cross-references (36)
- Exodus 4:11 (v9) Yahweh said to him, “Who made man’s mouth? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Isn’t it I, Yahweh?
- 1 Corinthians 3:20 (v11) And again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless.”
- Jeremiah 23:23-24 (v9) “Am I a God at hand,” says Yahweh, “and not a God afar off? Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I can’t see him?” says Yahweh.…
- 1 Corinthians 1:19 (v11) For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.”
- Psalms 11:4 (v9) Yahweh is in his holy temple. Yahweh is on his throne in heaven. His eyes observe. His eyes examine the children of men.
Show all 36 cross-references
- Psalms 44:21 (v9) won’t God search this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart.
- Proverbs 20:12 (v9) The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, Yahweh has made even both of them.
- Job 11:11-12 (v11) For he knows false men. He sees iniquity also, even though he doesn’t consider it. An empty-headed man becomes wise when a man is born as a…
- Job 35:11 (v10) who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’
- Psalms 139:1-12 (v9) Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You search…
- Romans 1:21-22 (v11) Because knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, and didn’t give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart…
- 1 Corinthians 1:21 (v11) For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn’t know God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of…
- 1 Corinthians 1:25 (v11) because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
- Psalms 49:10-13 (v11) For he sees that wise men die; likewise the fool and the senseless perish, and leave their wealth to others. Their inward thought is that…
- Psalms 17:3 (v9) You have proved my heart. You have visited me in the night. You have tried me, and found nothing. I have resolved that my mouth shall not…
- Isaiah 28:26 (v10) For his God instructs him in right judgment and teaches him.
- Psalms 44:2 (v10) You drove out the nations with your hand, but you planted them. You afflicted the peoples, but you spread them abroad.
- Jeremiah 10:25 (v10) Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, and on the families that don’t call on your name; for they have devoured Jacob.…
- Psalms 9:5 (v10) You have rebuked the nations. You have destroyed the wicked. You have blotted out their name forever and ever.
- Psalms 10:16 (v10) Yahweh is King forever and ever! The nations will perish out of his land.
- Psalms 25:8-9 (v10) Good and upright is Yahweh, therefore he will instruct sinners in the way. He will guide the humble in justice. He will teach the humble…
- Psalms 119:66 (v10) Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments.
- Psalms 135:8-12 (v10) He struck the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and animal. He sent signs and wonders into the middle of you, Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all…
- Proverbs 2:6 (v10) For Yahweh gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
- Isaiah 2:3 (v10) Many peoples shall go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his…
- Isaiah 10:5-6 (v10) Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation! I will send him against a profane nation, and against the…
- Isaiah 10:12 (v10) Therefore it will happen that when the Lord has performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the…
- Isaiah 37:36 (v10) Then Yahweh’s angel went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the…
- Isaiah 54:13 (v10) All your children will be taught by Yahweh; and your children’s peace will be great.
- Ezekiel 39:21 (v10) “I will set my glory among the nations. Then all the nations will see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on…
- Amos 3:2 (v10) “I have only chosen you of all the families of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all of your sins.”
- Habakkuk 1:12 (v10) Aren’t you from everlasting, Yahweh my God, my Holy One? We will not die. Yahweh, you have appointed him for judgment. You, Rock, have…
- Habakkuk 3:12 (v10) You marched through the land in wrath. You threshed the nations in anger.
- John 6:45 (v10) It is written in the prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who hears from the Father and has learned, comes to me.
- Psalms 149:7 (v10) to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples;
- Proverbs 20:1 (v9) Wine is a mocker and beer is a brawler. Whoever is led astray by them is not wise.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (17 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv10–11 10. He that chastiseth the nations, shall not he…
10. He that chastiseth the nations, shall not he correct? He would have them argue from the greater to the less, that if God did not spare even whole nations, but visits their iniquity with punishment, they could not imagine that he would suffer a mere handful of individuals to escape with impunity. The comparison intended, however, may possibly be between the Gentiles and the Jews. If God punished the heathen nations, who had not heard his word, with much severity, the Jews might expect that they, who had been familiarised to instruction in his house, would receive still sharper correction, and that he would vindicate his justice most in that nation over which he had chosen to preside. Still the former sense of the passage appears to me preferable, That it is folly in any number of individuals to flatter themselves with impunity, when they see God inflicting public punishment upon collective people. Some think there is an exclusive allusion to the signal and memorable instances of Divine judgment recorded in Scripture, as in the destruction of Sodom with fire from heaven, (Genesis 19.) and of the whole human family by the flood, (Genesis 7.) But the simpler meaning is best, That it were the height of madness in individuals to think that they could escape when nations perish. In adding that God teacheth men knowledge, the Psalmist glances at the overweening confidence of such as despise God, and pride themselves in their acuteness and shrewdness, as we find Isaiah denouncing a woe against those crafty enemies of God who dig deep, that they may hide themselves from his sight, (Isaiah 29:15.) It is a disease prevalent enough in the world still. We know the refuges under covert of which both courtiers and lawyers take occasion to indulge in shameless mockery of God. It is as if the Psalmist had said — You think to elude God through the confidence which you have in your acute understandings, and would pretend to dispute the knowledge of the Almighty, when, in truth, all the knowledge which is in the world is but as a drop from his own inexhaustible fullness.
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.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv9–10 He showeth that it is impossible, but God should…
He showeth that it is impossible, but God should hear, see, and understand their wickedness.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Psa 94:9 He that planted the ear, shall he…
Psa 94:9 He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?
Ver. 9. He that planted the ear, shall he not hear?] Shall the author of these senses be senseless? Our God is not as that Jupiter of Crete, who was pictured without ears, and could not be at leisure to attend upon small matters. He is ους et νους; he is also ολοφθαλμος, all eye, all ear. We read of a people called Panotii God only is so, to speak properly.
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He that Formed the eye, shall he not see?] He saith formeth, because there are many forms or species in the eye continually; and as the optic virtue in the eye seeth all, and is seen of none, so doth God much more. All David’s ways were in God’s sight, all God’s laws in David’s sight, Psa 119:168.
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.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Planted: the word is very emphatical, signifying the excellent…
Planted: the word is very emphatical, signifying the excellent structure of the ear, or the several organs or instruments belonging to the sense of hearing, and the exact position and firm settlement of all those parts in their proper places; which is justly admired by all that understand it.
Shall he not hear? he must necessarily hear. The truth of the inference depends upon that evident and undeniable principle in reason, that nothing can give to another that which it hath not either formally or more eminently in itself, and that no effect can exceed the virtue of its cause.
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Formed; by which word he seems to intimate the accurate and most curious workmanship of the eye, which is observed by all that write upon that subject.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv9–11 He that planted the ear,.... In the human body,…
He that planted the ear,.... In the human body, with so much art and skill, in so convenient a place, so capacious of receiving sounds, and fitted it with organs suited for such a purpose:
shall he not hear? the atheism spoke in the heart, in the actions and by the mouths of such blasphemers of him; the hard speeches spoken against his Son, his person and offices; and against his Spirit, his being, and operations; and against his people, the saints of the most High; in short, all those blasphemies and evil speakings of God, of his tabernacle, and those that dwell therein: it would be monstrous stupidity to imagine, that that God, that communicates a faculty of hearing to his creatures, should not hear himself; for none can give that which they have not:
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he that formed the eye: in so curious a manner, with such exquisite parts; with such fine humours, nerves, and tunics; so adapted to receive all objects, and take the impress of them in so wonderful a manner:
shall he not see? all persons and things, all the ways and actions of men; certainly he must: clouds, rocks, and hills, are no obstruction to him; the darkness and the light are both alike to him; his eyes are everywhere, and all things are naked and open before him: it is the height of madness and folly to think that that God cannot see what men are doing here below, who has given to men eyes to see the heavens above, and all their host; and in this so small a compass to take in the sight of the largest mountains, as well as the most minute things: since the seeing eye, and the hearing ear, are both from the Lord, it may be most strongly concluded that he hears all that is said, and sees all that is done, against him and his people; see Pro 20:12. A Heathen (c) could say,
"truly there is a God, who hears and sees all that we do.''
(c) Plauti Capteivei, Act. 2. Sc. 2. v. 63.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Planted - The word is emphatical, signifying the excellent…
Planted - The word is emphatical, signifying the excellent structure of the ear, or the several organs belonging to the sense of hearing. Formed - By which word he intimates the accurate and curious workmanship of the eye.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv9–10 Verse 9. He that planted the ear, shall he…
Verse 9. He that planted the ear, shall he not hear?] This is allowed to be an unanswerable mode of argumentation. Whatever is found of excellence in the creature, must be derived from the Creator, and exist in him in the plenitude of infinite excellence. God, says St. Jerome, is all eye, because he sees all; he is all hand, because he does all things; he is all foot, for he is every where present. The psalmist does not say, He that planted the ear, hath he not an ear? He that formed the eye, hath he not eyes? No; but, Shall he not hear? Shall he not see! And why does he say so? To prevent the error of humanizing God, of attributing members or corporeal parts to the infinite Spirit. See Calmet.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv10–11 Psa 94:10. He that chastiseth — Or, He that…
Psa 94:10. He that chastiseth — Or, He that instructeth, or teacheth, or reproveth (as the word יסר, jasar, often signifies, and is rendered Pro 9:7; Isa 8:11, &c.) the heathen, the Gentiles, or nations of the world: not only the Jews, but all other people, all mankind, as the next clause explains it; shall not he correct? — He who, when he pleases, can and does punish the nations of the world, is he not able to punish you for your wicked speeches and actions? Or, He that reproveth, and therefore discerneth their evil words and works, shall he not discern and reprove yours, who sin against greater light, and more privileges and advantages, and whose sins therefore are more aggravated? He that teacheth man knowledge — That giveth him understanding, and the knowledge of many excellent things by the light of nature; shall not he know — Namely, men’s thoughts, as in the next verse, and of consequence their whole conduct? These words are not in the Hebrew text, but are easily understood out of the foregoing clause. The meaning of the verse, in substance, is, “He that instructeth the nations, and supplieth them with all the knowledge they have, can he want means of discovering what they are contriving and doing, or of finding them out? Will not he be able to trace them out in all their machinations?” Or, as Dr. Horne paraphraseth the words, “It is God who hath instructed the world, by his revelations, in religious knowledge, and, consequently, without all doubt, he cannot be ignorant of the use and abuse which men make of that unspeakable gift.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv9–11 He that planted the ear - He that made…
He that planted the ear - He that made the ear. The word here used in the original is a participle. “Shall not he planting the ear;” that is, the “planter” of the ear. The idea seems to have been taken from the act of making a “hole” in the ground when we set out a plant - as if, in like manner, a “hole” had been made in the side of the head to insert the ear.
Shall he not hear? - He could not have created the faculty of hearing, without possessing it himself. Or, it is reasonable to suppose that he who has made man capable of hearing, must be able to hear himself. We have nothing in our nature which is not possessed in an infinitely higher measure by God.
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He that formed the eye - This, too, is a participle: “He forming the eye;” that is, the Former of the eye. The word used here is frequently employed in reference to a “potter;” and the idea is that God has moulded or formed the eye as the potter fashions the clay. The more the eye is studied in its structure, the more deeply shall we be impressed with the wonderful skill and wisdom of God. See this beautifully illustrated in Paley’s Natural Theology.
Shall he not see? - He that made the eye to see must himself be able to see. He must see all that the eye itself can see; he must see all that all eyes see; he must have the power of sight far beyond what there is in the mere organ which he has made.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv9–11 9. He that planted the ear, shall he not…
9. He that planted the ear, shall he not hear—The argument is to those who admit the doctrine that God created man and endowed him with his faculties, which further proves that he is addressing not heathen, but sceptical or backslidden Hebrews. The ground of the argument from the creature to the Creator is, that man was made in the similitude of God; a thoroughly Hebraistic doctrine. Gen_1:27
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv9–11 9. It is absurd to suppose that the Creator…
9. It is absurd to suppose that the Creator of the organs of sense does not Himself possess faculties corresponding to them.
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv10–11 (10) He that chastiseth.—Or, He who instructeth. The thought…
(10) He that chastiseth.—Or, He who instructeth. The thought to some extent anticipates St. Paul’s teaching about the divine education of the heathen, in Romans 1.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv9–11 He that planted the ear, shall he not hear?…
He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see? This argument for a real, personal, intelligent God appears here, for the first time. It is of irresistible force. "Can it be possible that God, who planned and made the curious mechanism of hearing and vision, is himself without those faculties, or something analogous to them? Must he not hear those cries, and see those outrages, which men, who are his creatures, see and hear? Is it conceivable that he can be an unobservant and apathetic God?" (Cheyne).
Vers. 9, 10. From man to God.
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The argument here is, that whatever powers are found in man are surely found in him who made man. The workman must have in him everything that gains expression in his work. A machine is an embodiment of thought, and the thought is altogether higher than the machine. Here the point is men hear the cry of the oppressed; men see the sufferings of the godly; then they may be quite sure that God both sees and hears; and they must seek some better explanation of his delayed help than can be found by assuming his ignorance or indifference. "Whatever is in man must be in the Power that made man whether by evolution out of lower natures or otherwise it matters not and whatever exists in that Power must show itself in active energy in the direction of man"s history." (Barry).
I MAN IS ALWAYS READY TO HELP HIS SUFFERING NEIGHBOUR. Man as man is. Some men, self-centred and self-seeking, are not. All true men are sympathetic toward sufferers, easily roused to champion the oppressed, and vigorous against the violent wrong doer. History is full of illustrations of the sacrifices men will make in behalf of the innocent and oppressed. No doubt the advancing civilization, which crowds cities, tends to put the disabled and oppressed out of sight and hearing; but let their condition come into view, and then men are ready with generous hand and gift, prepared to help. The psalmist is dealing with those who pleaded that, in the humiliations and distresses of his time, there were no more than signs of human sympathy and help; and who groaned that these were proving quite ineffective.
II GOD IS ALWAYS READY TO HELP HIS SUFFERING PEOPLE. First, this is absolutely certain he can see and hear. And this is quite as certain he does see and hear. Then why does he not immediately intervene? To get the reason we must always take a large and comprehensive view of God"s rule. And especially we must remember that he is the God of the wrong doer as well as of the saint; of the oppressor as well as of the oppressed . And it may be that the need of the hour is chastening for the good, and this may require that the evil be maintained as the chastening agency. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Ver. 9. He that planted the ear, shall he…
Ver. 9. He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He fashioned that marvellous organ, and fixed it in the most convenient place near to the brain, and is he deaf himself? Is he capable of such design and invention, and yet can he not discern what is done in the world which he made? He made you hear, can he not himself hear? Unanswerable question! It overwhelms the sceptic, and covers him with confusion.
He that formed the eye, shall he not see? He gives us vision; is it conceivable that he has no sight himself? With skilful hand he fashioned the optic nerve, and the eyeball, and all its curious mechanism, and it surpasses all conception that he can himself be unable to observe the doings of his creatures. If there be a God, he must be a personal intelligent being, and no limit can be set to his knowledge.
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Ver. 9. He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? etc. The psalmist does not say, He that planteth the ear, hath he not an ear? He that formed the eye, hath he not eyes? No; but, Shall he not hear? Shall he not see? And why does he say so? To prevent the error of humanizing God, of attributing members or corporeal parts to the infinite Spirit. Adam Clarke.
Ver. 9. Planted the ear. The mechanism of the ear, like a root planted in the earth, is sunk deep into the head, and concealed from view. Bagster's Comprehensive Bible.
Ver. 9. The planting or deep seated position of the ear, as well as its wonderful construction, are illustrated by the following extract: "The organ or instrument of hearing is in all its most important parts so hidden within the head, that we cannot perceive its construction by a mere external inspection. What in ordinary language we call the ear, is only the outer porch or entrance vestibule of a curious series of intricate, winding passages, which, like the lobbies of a great building, lead from the outer air into the inner chambers. Certain of these passages are full of air; others are full of liquid; and their membranes are stretched like parchment curtains across the corridors at different places, and can be thrown into vibration, or made to tremble, as the head of a drum or the surface of a tambourine does when struck with a stick or the fingers. Between two of these parchment like curtains, a chain of very small bones extends, which serves to tighten or relax these membranes, and to communicate vibrations to them. In the innermost place of all, rows of fine threads, called nerves, stretch like the strings of a piano from the last points to which the tremblings or thrillings reach, and pass inwards to the brain. If these threads or nerves are destroyed, the power of hearing as infallibly departs as the power to give out sound is lost by a piano or violin when its strings are broken."
We know far less, however, of the ear than of the eye. The eye is a single chamber open to the light, and we can see into it, and observe what happens there. But the ear is many chambered, and its winding tunnels traversing the rock like bones of the skull are narrow, and hidden from us as the dungeons of a castle are, like which, also, they are totally dark. Thus much, however, we know, that it is in the innermost recesses of these unilluminated ivory vaults, that the mind is made conscious of sound. Into these gloomy cells, as into the bright chamber of the eye, the soul is ever passing and asking for news from the world without; and ever and anon, as of old in hidden subterranean caverns where men listened in silence and darkness to the utterance of oracles, reverberations echo along the surrounding walls, and responses come to the waking spirit, while the world lifts up its voice and speaks to the soul. The sound is that of a hushed voice, a low but clear whisper; for as it is but a dim shadow of the outer world we see; so it is but a faint echo of the outer world we hear. George Wilson, in "The Five Gateways of Knowledge, "1861.
Ver. 9. He that planted the ear, &c. Shall the Author of these senses be senseless? Our God is not as that Jupiter of Crete, who was pictured without ears, and could not be at leisure to attend upon small matters. He is onv kai nou; he is also olofyalmov, all eye, all ear. We read of a people called Panotii;God only is so, to speak properly John Trapp.
Ver. 9. Formed the eye. The term used of the creation of the eye, is not merely "made, "as the Prayer Book version reads, but "formed, "plasav, finxit, directing our attention to the wonderful mechanism of the organs of sight, and thence to the marvellous skill of the Artificer. J. M. Neale.
Ver. 9. He that formed the eye. The word here used is frequently employed in reference to a potter;and the idea is that God has moulded or formed the eye as the potter fashions the clay. The more the eye is studied in its structure, the more deeply shall we be impressed with the wonderful skill and wisdom of God. Albert Barnes.
Ver. 9. The eye. As illustrating the wisdom displayed in the eye we have selected the following. "Our physical good demands that we should have the power of comprehending the world in all the respects in which it is possible for matter or its forces to affect our bodies." The senses completely meet this want... We are too apt to confine ourselves to the mere mechanism of the eye or ear, without considering how the senses supplement each other, and without considering the provision made in the world that it may be a fit place for the exercise of the senses. The eye would be useless without all the properties of light; the ear would have no power in a world without an atmosphere. Sight enables us to avoid danger, and seek distant needful objects. What a vast length of time and wearisome labour would it require for a blind man to learn what one glance of the eye may give to one blessed with sight. A race of blind men could not exist on this globe.
The sense of sight alone, as a means of adapting us to the world, would strike us as wonderful in its results, and worthy of the conception of the highest intelligence in adapting means to ends, if we knew nothing of the adjustments by which sight is secured. We can conceive of the power of sight as direct perception, without the aid of light, or of a special organ corresponding to the eye. But constituted as we are, we see only through the agency of light; and we perceive light only by a special organ; and objects only in consequence of a peculiar structure of that organ. Of all these relationships of light to objects, and of light to the eye, and of the parts of the eye to each other, not one of them is a necessary condition of matter. The arrangement of so many things by which this wonderful power of perceiving distant objects is secured, is the only one that will secure the end desired, out of an endless number of arrangements that can be conceived of... Whoever contrived the organ through which we are to perceive, understood perfectly all the properties of light, and the wants of the being that was to use it. The eye of man, though limited in its power to a certain range, gives all that the common wants of life demand. And if man needs greater range of vision, he has but to study the eye itself, and fashion instruments to increase its power; as he is able when the proper time has come in his civilization, to increase by science and art the efficacy of nearly all his physical powers. For the ordinary purposes of life, neither telescopic nor microscopic adjustment of the eye is needful.
But the eye has not only the power of vision so necessary to man, but it is an instrument of power, an instrument made up of distinct parts, of solids and liquids, of transparent and opaque tissues, of curtains, and lenses, and screens. Its mechanism can be accurately examined and the use of each part as perfectly understood as any of the works of man. We examine every part of it as we would a microscope. We have first the solid case which is to hold all the machinery, and upon which are to be fastened the cords and pulleys of its skilful mounting. This covering, opaque, white, and glistening, like silver on the back and sides of the eye, in front, where the light must enter, suddenly becomes transparent as the clearest crystal. Within this is a second coating that coming to the front changes just as suddenly into an opaque screen, through the tissues of which no ray of light can pass. That screen is self adjusting, with a network that no art of man ever equalled. Whether expanding or contracting, its opening in the centre always remains a perfect circle, adapted in size to the intensity of the light. How much light shall enter the eye it determines without aid from us. Next there must be connection with the brain, the seat of the being for whom the provision is made. These two coatings are pierced upon the back part of the eye, and a thread draw out from the brain is passed through this opening and spread out within the eye as a delicate screen upon which all impressions are to be made. To fill the larger portion of the cavity, there is packed into it a clear jelly, and imbedded in this a lens, fashioned with a skill that no artist can equal, to refract the light and throw the image on the perceptive screen. In front of this lens is another humour, not like jelly as the other, because in this, that delicate fringe the iris, is to float, and nothing but a watery fluid will answer its purpose. Here then we have a great variety of materials all brought together, of the exact quality and in the quantity needed, placed in the exact position which they ought to occupy, so perfectly adjusted that the most that man can do is to imitate the eye without ever hoping to equal it.
Nor is the curious structure of the eye itself all that is worthy of our attention. The instrument when finished must be mounted for use. A cavity is formed in solid bone, with grooves and perforations for all the required machinery. The eye, when placed, is packed with soft elastic cushions and fastened by strings and pulleys to give it variety and rapidity of motion. Its outer case is to cover it when not in use, and protect it when in danger. The delicate fringe upon its border never needs clipping; and set like a well arranged defence, its points all gracefully turned back, that no ray of light may be obstructed. Above the protecting brow is another defence to turn aside the acrid fluids from the forehead, while near the eye is placed a gland that bathes the whole organ with a clear soothing fluid, to prevent all friction and keep its outward lens free from dust, and polished for constant use. When we consider all this, the perfect adaptation of the eye to our wants, the arrangement of every part of its structure on strict mechanical and optical principles, and all the provisions for its protection, we pronounce the instrument perfect, the work of a Being like man, but raised immeasurably above the most skilful human workman. What shall we say when we learn that this instrument was prepared in long anticipation of its use; that there is a machinery within it to keep it in constant repair; that the Maker not only adjusted the materials, but that he was the chemist who formed all these substances from the dust of the earth? We may be told that the architect found this dust ready at hand, existing from all eternity. We may not be able to prove the contrary, nor do we need to do so for this argument. It is enough for our present purpose to know that the eyes with which we now see, these wonderfully complex and perfect instruments, were not long since common earth, dust upon which we perchance have trod.
We can understand the mechanism of the eye, we can comprehend the wisdom that devised it; but the preparation of materials, and the adjustment of parts, speak of a power and skill to which man can never hope to attain. When he sees his most cunning workmanship surpassed both in plan and execution, shall he fail to recognise design? "Shall we fail to recognise a builder when we contemplate such a work?" P. A. Chadbourne, in "Lectures on Natural Theology"; or, Nature and the Bible from the same Author. New York, 1867.
Ver. 9. Shall he not see? A god or a saint that should really cast the glance of a pure eye into the conscience of the worshipper would not long be held in repute. The grass would grow again around that idol's shrine. A seeing god would not do: the idolater wants a blind god. The first cause of idolatry is a desire in an impure heart to escape from the look of the living God, and none but a dead image would serve the turn. William Arnot.
Ver. 9. He who made the sun itself, and causes it to revolve, being a small portion of his works, if compared with the whole, is he unable to perceive all things? Epictus.
Ver. 9. That is wise counsel of the Rabbins, that the three best safeguards against falling into sin are to remember, first, that there is an ear which hears everything; secondly, that there is an eye which sees everything; thirdly, that there is a hand which writes everything in the Book of Knowledge, which shall be opened at the Judgment. J. M. Neale.
Ver. 9-10. It was no limited power that could make this eye to see, this ear to hear, this heart to understand; and, if that eye which he hath given us, can see all things that are within our prospect, and that ear, that he hath planted, can hear all sounds that are within our compass, and that heart, that he hath given us, can know all matters within the reach of our comprehension; how much more shall the sight, and hearing, and knowledge of that Infinite Spirit, which can admit of no bounds, extend to all the actions and events of all the creatures, that lie open before him that made them! Joseph Hall.
Ver. 9-10. True Rationalism; or, Reason's Revelation of God. U.A.D.
Psalms 94:10*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv9, 11 He that planted the ear, shall He not hear?
Psa_94:9-10
He that planted the ear, shall He not hear?
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He that formed the eye, shall He not see?
Evolution and design
These words contain the germ of all natural and moral philosophy. There are two great underlying ideas--First, the abstract argument from design that intention and purpose, not blind chance, has evolved the most wondrous mechanism of the animal frame; second, the parallelism between the laws and working of mind and of matter, proceeding from one and the same Author. Each has its laws of sequence, causes produce results, and those results intended and foreseen in both cases alike. As the ear is made for hearing and the eye for seeing, so He that gave man knowledge, or, what is the same thing, the power of acquiring knowledge, intends it to be used; and if, as in the case of the heathen, the moral light is perverted, suffering, punishment, as a necessary law or consequence must ensue. Chance is set aside, as it is now by the student of physical science, dismissed like the older idea of fate. On the scientific doctrine of chances, the evolution of such a mechanism as the eye is, as has been shown by Professor Pritchard, almost incalculable. Blind law, the next hypothesis, is equally insufficient. Hence some of the ablest exponents of the doctrine of evolution maintain that the circle of evolving laws or forces must certainly be ruled by some Intelligence, either inherent and immanent, or else transcendental and probably personal, guiding and superior to them all. One of the foremost living naturalists and a champion of the doctrines of evolution maintains
(1) that atoms are centres of force,
(2) that force is known to us as Will,
(3) that the Will that governs the world is the will of higher intelligences, or of our own supreme intelligence; that we cannot account for mans physical peculiarities, much less for his consciousness, his language, his volition, or his moral sense by evolution simply, that there is a feeling, a sense of right and wrong in our nature, antecedent to, and independent of experiences of utility (Wallace)
.
A Blind Intelligence, immanent in matter or not, by no means solves the problem. What are the core and essence of this hypothesis? Strip it naked and you stand face to face with the notion that not alone the more ignoble forms of animalculae or animal life, not alone the noble forms of the horse and lion, not alone the exquisite mechanism of the human body, but that the human mind itself, emotion, intellect, will, and all their phenomena, were once latent in a fiery cloud. Surely the mere statement of such a notion is more than a refutation. But when, passing beyond the notion of a blind intelligence, we accept the fact that He that made the eye could see, that there is a relation between a personal Supreme Being, and His creation; we find far fewer difficulties. There are difficulties, but the fact of the possibility of the theory is admitted by all. John Stuart Mill designated it as the most persuasive of all arguments for Theism. It explains the world; and, what is more, it does what no other theory does, it finds a first ground for all existing things. The theory of design stands undisturbed by the doctrine of evolution. No laws impressed upon matter or upon mind, banish a God from the world He has made. We do not necessarily press the idea of design in each detail, but we maintain that, throughout the universe, there is a general fitness, a correlation of function with power, which point to a prescient antecedent Intelligence. Above all is this correlation manifest in organic structures, animal and vegetable. Mind is presented to us throughout the universe. And, as evolution in the organic world, carries out the Will of a prescient Intelligence, so, in the moral world, sin or evil, by a natural consequence, entails punishment. He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not He correct, for He knoweth? We are here brought face to face with the greatest admitted difficulty in the world as we know it: the existence of evil, and of suffering as a consequence of evil. Nothing can be more unphilosophical than to separate the material and moral government of the world. Parallel laws rule both. The existence of man now throws light on the final cause of the animated creation. To be consistent with the plan adopted by God, it was necessary to evolve successively the long line of vertebrates from the Silurian epoch to the present day. Mans rudimentary organs are suggestive of evolution. But in his moral nature he stands apart from animals by a gap which neither observation nor philosophical reasoning has ever bridged. Nor can we conceive of any force capable of being differentiated into the Will, a power which may act in direct opposition to the forces of nature. Evolution could not by natural laws produce man. As Mr. Wallace writes, If it be proved that some Intelligent power has guided or determined the development of man, we may see indications of that power in facts which by themselves would not seem to prove its existence. Among these he adduces the brain, with its convolutions far beyond the needs or use of the savage, the absence of hair on the back of even the lowest races, and the hand, which has all the appearance of an organ prepared beforehand for the advance and use of civilized man, and one which was indispensable to render civilization possible. But why should evil be introduced? Simply because of Gods will. Man was made a moral free agent. Moral evil has been defined as the conscious abuse of means, instead of using them for the ends for which they were designed. An animal cannot be guilty because it obeys natural laws without reflecting upon them. Man can and does reflect, and uses his freewill to obey or not: but he has disobeyed. The heathen did not choose to retain God in their knowledge. Here comes in the distinctive feature of Gods moral government. In all else, a gradual process is wrought out by natural laws. But moral evil has come in, and, as nature cannot always effect a cure without external aid, so natural processes alone could not restore humanity. The impetus of evil was too strong; the natural instincts of goodness were overborne. God steps in as the physician, and by the revelation of His Son enables humanity to rise from its moral degradation. Neither out of Greek philosophy, nor out of Judaism, nor out of any other existing system could the teaching or the work of Christ have been evolved. The results have proved it. No other system has ever done for man what this has done, and is doing, in elevating the degraded. Christs teaching of universal love and everlasting life through Himself, has done what no other religion or philosophy ever attempted. If evil be the necessary concomitant of Freewill, it is no less a recognized law of nature as a result of the struggle for existence. Pain and death are spoken of as physical evils. Let it be so. But death is a necessary accompaniment in the natural world of the struggle for existence, and pain is a necessary and benevolent provision for maintaining the instincts of self-preservation. So in the moral world, misery, the result of sin, and sin itself, or the misuse of powers and faculties, are the necessary concomitants of Freewill. Why does evil exist? Why do animals exist? Why do I exist? There is no answer except for Christianity. There is but one explanation of our existence here, and Revelation gives it. It was to render mans life here probationary in every way. The future existence of man is the only interpretation of his existence here, and the more we wait for our final redemption in patience and hope, the less shall we feel the penal character of physical evil here. And in spiritual life there is the same doctrine of development as in the natural, for what is the growth in grace but the evolution of the perfect man in Christ from the germ of the Holy Spirits planting? That Holy Spirit and His work may be an enigma, but it is no greater enigma than the origin of physical life. For both we claim an origin, and that origin divine. And the doctrine of evolution, which deduces all natural life from the germ, on the origin of which it does not speculate, is exactly parallel to the doctrine of theology, which deduces all spiritual life from the heaven-implanted germ, and all mans spiritual future from the unfolding of that grand revelation of the Will of God, that what the law could not do, etc. (Rom_8:3). (Canon Tristram.)
The three/old argument
Reverence is at the root of all religion! When the libertines of the French Revolution crowned the Goddess of Reason with garlands, they worked hard to eradicate the old reverence for God out of the hearts of men! Reverence is not superstitious fear; it is not a degrading and debasing affright at the Great Power above us, who rules the world as with an iron sceptre: it is a reverence for God as He is, the embodiment of all holiness, justice, righteousness and truth. Who, in this sense, shall not fear Thee, O God?
I. The first argument is physical, and founded on the senses. Use has deadened our sense of wonder. The ear is the most wonderful harpsichord in the universe. It is exactly related to the constitution of things around us, working with ease, with pleasure, and with perpetuity, so that year after year it never requires returning, is unaffected by variations of temperature, and is not worn out with use--all this is very, very wonderful! It has opened up to us already a most wonderful world. Myriad are the voices of creation, the whispering of the breeze, the purling of the brook, the songs of birds, the rustling of the corn, the deep bass of the breaking waves of the sea, and all the varied tones of human voices. These sensations of hearing which might have been painful, are all full of pleasure. And so wonderful is the variety of sound, that we know the tones of our own childrens voices in an assembly. The prisoner knew the voice of the musician singing outside his cell. Mary knew her Masters voice after the resurrection. The sheep on Israels mountains may hear the familiar call of Jesses shepherd son, but Gods sheep must not hear His voice! We are often told of the marvels of faith: of what men will believe. I have often longed to prepare a paper on the marvels of unbelief! With these facts of observation before us, with this present constitution of things, with man himself the great marvel of workmanship, well may we once more ponder the words, He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? Then think of the eye; on its soft and delicate mirror, what pictures have been reflected: they have required no porters to carry them into the picture gallery within you, and memory, with little effort and no noise, re-touches them as they hang upon the wall. And is God, who created the eye, the only Being that is not to see? Is the finite being to watch, to behold, to observe, and the Infinite One to be sightless? What a marvel of unbelief is this! We have indeed reached the ultima thule of follys argument if we can believe this.
II. The second argument is historical, and founded on Gods moral government of nations. He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not He correct? God not only hears and sees, He acts. When the ungodly were exclaiming, as the psalmist says, The Lord shall not see, the Lord shall not regard it, the Lord was seeing, regarding, judging! Had they forgotten how Pharaoh and his host were drowned in the Red Sea? Had they forgotten the heathen priests (1Sa_5:4-6)? Had they forgotten the judgments on the priests of the house of Ahab (2Ki_23:1-37)? We have a larger and broader background of history than they had! We have seen joy and gladness taken away from the plentiful field, and from the land of Moab (Jer_48:32-33), and now pastures, vineyards, villages, cities, all are waste. Yes! Moab is spoiled and gone up out of her cities (Jer_44:15-24). We can see from ruined ramparts Bozrah desolate as Isaiah says (Isa_33:10), without man, without inhabitant, without beast. We can look upon the high places of Eastern Judea, and remember the words of Jeremiah, I beheld, and lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, etc. Yes, and far away from Judea we can walk amid the ruins of the idolatrous Egyptians, we can visit their pyramids and the remains of their stupendous temples, and we can turn to the words, I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, it shall be the lowest of the kingdoms, neither shall it exalt itself any more upon the nations. We can visit Nineveh, and Babylon, and find the truth of our text written there. We can go to Hebron and Kerioth, and read the words of the old Hebrew prophets (Isa_27:10; Isa_22:4). He that chastiseth the heathen, shall, etc. In the light of these facts we need no voice from the heavens to give us the audible yea! And conscience and Scripture say the same. Is it wise, then, to live the frivolous, indevout lives that so many do? to risk our high estate as immortal beings?
III. The third argument is mental, and founded on the mind of man. He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not He know? Few study their own minds! I cannot think that they would indulge in such empty conceits about the future if they did! Any one mind is more wonderful even than a material universe! How noiselessly it works; how vast its store. Some minds, of course, illustrate this wonderfulness more than others. Historians like Hume, Macintosh, Macaulay, Lecky, must have the rich gatherings of years of study stored in their mental treasury. Let a man ponder himself, and then he will cease to be deluded by the sophistries of materialism! Two facts will be self-evident, one is personal consciousness--man is! He mingles with no other! If he is certain of anything, he can say, I think, therefore I am. The other fact is, a receptive power, man is constantly receiving, growing alike in the extent of his knowledge and in the capacity to know. Now whilst man has this consciousness himself, it is strange that the tendency of modern science should be to do away with the idea of a personal God, and to lose Him in some generalization of force or law. The psalmist anticipates this beautifully in these words: You know, you think! How came you to do it? He that teacheth man knowledge, etc. Yes, the teacher of knowledge knows. Let that thought comfort our hearts in all the bitter experience of grief. He knows. Many of our inner histories may be as difficult for others to interpret as Egyptian hieroglyphics. But He knows. Verily, then, there is a God that judgeth in the earth. Verily, then, there is a God that comforteth His people. Verily, then, there is a God that is able to help and willing to cast His shield over us in every time of battle and trouble. His eye is upon us, His ear is open to our cry, His judgment is not according to outward appearance, but His judgment is just and His thoughts are to us-ward: and once more the Saviour stands before us with open arms, saying, Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. (W. M. Statham.)
Views of the Divine character
The argument by which the being of a God is established is one of the simplest that can be conceived. We feel that we ourselves exist; we see the world, both of intelligence and of matter, existing everywhere without us; we know that neither we ourselves, nor any other human beings, were the original causes of the existence and powers which we and they possess. Matter, we not less irresistibly conclude, could not create itself. From what we feel in ourselves and see in others, and behold in the material world, we therefore rise to some higher Being and power--to some superior mind--till we reach one that is above all--a first cause, which must be immaterial and uncreated; and this cause is God. Whoever has ears to hear, or eyes to see, or an understanding to apprehend any truth, has, in these powers of body and of mind, a constant and indisputable evidence, if he would only attend to it, of the providence and government of God.
I. He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? The wonderful mechanism of the human ear; its exquisite adaptation to the purpose which it is intended to serve; the delicate construction of some, and the stronger texture of other parts of its organization; the one so requisite to the acute discernment of the almost infinite variety of sounds that are conveyed to it, and the other to protect it from the external injuries to which it is constantly exposed: all these circumstances bespeak the existence and influence of a Power in its formation super-eminent alike in wisdom and in goodness. He who heard the groanings of Israel in the land of Egypt, and the prayer of Daniel in the lions den, heard also the cry of Abels blood from the field of fratricide, and the sigh of Jonah from the bowels of the deep. And His ear is not now heavy that it cannot hear. We may be bound in the arms of sleep, and incapable of being roused by the loudest noise around us; but He never slumbers nor sleeps: His ear is ever watchful and acute. We may, through inattention or ignorance, mistake one sound for another; but nothing can weaken or injure His power of perfect and intuitive discernment. We can hear a voice only when it is comparatively near us, and when unimpeded by natural obstructions to its conveyance; but, from the very ends of the earth, and throughout every region of the universe--from the depths of a dungeon, as well as the solitude of an unpeopled wilderness--every sound that is uttered enters His ear.
II. He that formed the eye, shall He not see? As, of all our senses, that of sight is the most important and, valuable, so its organs are the most exquisitely and delicately constructed; presenting us, in every part, with new and most demonstrative evidence, that He who formed them must be equally almighty and all-wise. Knowledge is to God what vision is to us. When, therefore, in the figurative language of Scripture, we speak of His eyes being in every place, beholding the evil and the good; of His eyes seeing and His eyelids trying the children of men; of the darkness and the light being both alike unto Him; and of His looking not on the outward appearance, but on the heart--we speak of His universal, intuitive, and penetrating knowledge of every object, and event, and being, through every region and spot of His universe, during every day and hour and instant of time. Appearances may deceive us, but nothing can impose on Him. We may be betrayed by an illusion of our senses, but His is an eye of unerring, penetrating and infallible knowledge.
III. He that teacheth man knowledge, shall He not know? Must not He who formed the human mind, with its wondrous complement of varied yet united, and, when in the state in which they originally came from Him, exactly balanced and harmonizing faculties, be perfectly acquainted with every movement of every one of them? He knows on what our affections are most constantly and supremely placed--whether on objects of present earthly endearment, and things that perish with the using; or on Himself and Christ, and the things that are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. He knows how our conscience is directed and influenced--whether by our own wayward passions, and the maxims and practice of the world around us, or by His unerring and holy will, by the dictates of His Word, and the motions of His Spirit; and whether it is insensible and hardened, sometimes roused, but again and more deeply deadened; or sensible and tender, alive and on the watch, as the monitor of His grace within us. He knows also the reception which we have given to the revelation of His mercy and will--the light in which we regard its intimations--the interest which we feel and take in its warnings and its promises--the faith which we exercise in the Saviour, whom it makes known to us--the submission which we give to His righteousness and law, or the impenitence and unbelief and disobedience with which we contemplate and think of His plan of reconciling and justifying and sanctifying grace. (D. Dickson, D.D.)
The Divine signature in man
The text is a beautiful statement of a principle which has always been held to have great argumentative force. It played a part in the mental history of the German philosopher Leibnitz. Suggested to him by a friend, who pointed one day to an open Bible, and asked, Will not these words help you? the words of our text became the motto and the keynote of his system, the pattern on which he constructed it, the statement in which he summarized it. We shall look at it, however, not in its philosophical, but its practical bearings, and select our illustrations accordingly.
I. The eye and the ear of perception. Simple observation, that is the thought we set out with: the power to discern, to discover, to watch, to know. And for the purpose we speak of--the purpose of mere perception--how marvellously are these instruments fitted! Take the eye, what a miracle of delicacy, adjustment, and minuteness we have there! Whence is it, Sir Isaac Newton asks, that the eyes of all sorts of living creatures are transparent to the very bottom, and the only transparent members in the body, having on the outside a hard, transparent skin, and within transparent humours, with a crystalline lens in the middle, and a pupil before the lens, all of them so finely shaped and fitted for vision that no artist can mend them? Did blind chance know that there was light and what was its refraction, and fit the eyes of all creatures, alter the most curious manner, to make use of it? These and suchlike considerations always have prevailed, and always will prevail, with mankind to believe that there is a Being who made all these things, and has all things in His care, and is therefore to be feared. What a power to disturb and disquiet has the human eye! There is the eye of the warder, for instance, with its vigilance. When Lafayette was imprisoned at the time of the French Revolution, part of his punishment was this: that in the door of his cell there was a slit, and at the slit there was placed an eye, never closed, never withdrawn. And it was just the portion of his punishment he felt most intolerable. Or, again, there is the eye of the child with its innocence. That man, that woman must be far gone indeed who can consciously and deliberately sin with the clear, unsuspicious eye of a child turned upon them in the act, in wonder at its character or in ignorance of its guilt. Or, again, there is the eye of the professional man with its searching. Among the heathen recipes for virtue is this one by Cato, pathetic in its half-presentation of the truth: I conceive, he says, that the best plan for cultivating goodness is continually to imagine the eye of some distinguished character fixed upon you. What the pagan lawgiver commended as a matter of fancy, the Bible-taught believer acknowledges as a matter of sober, solemn fact.
II. The eye and ear of appreciation. What does the eye of the artist mean? It means the revelation of new sights, or rather the shedding of new glory on common and familiar sights. It means a deeper mystery in the sky, a softer shimmer on the sea, a fresher green in the woods, a richer purple on the heather, a brighter gold on the gorse, a lovelier glow in the sunset as it mirrors itself in the placid lake, or sheds itself upon Alpine snows, turning the white into orange and rose. What does the ear of the musician mean? It means a susceptibility to all sweet sounds, and these not only the strains of art, but the melodies of nature too. It means sympathy with song, whencesoever it arises--from the surge as it booms on the beach, from the rivulet as it chimes on the pebbles, from the birds as they pipe on the branches, from the wind as it harps on the pines, from the cataracts as they blow their trumpets from the steep. The eye and the ear of appreciation--this eye of the artist receptive of all fair visions, this ear of the musician receptive of all sweet tones--who gave them? And He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not see? He that created these faculties of appreciation, shall He not appreciate? He that bestowed these capacities of enjoyment, shall He not enjoy? He that formed the eye, in correspondence with all fair colours, shall He be blind? He that planted the ear, in responsiveness to all rich cadences, shall He be deaf? Nay, let me realize that He watches the unfolding of these colours, let me realize that He listens to the echoing of these cadences, drawing a joy out of each deeper than mine is, as the infinite is deeper than the finite--purer, too, as the absolutely and originally holy is purer than the frail, the imperfect, and the fallen.
III. The eye and ear of affection. We may look at these two senses as symbolical of the feelings that so often inform and direct them, the instincts of love, benevolence, and compassion, to which the eye and the ear are ministers, of which the eye and the ear are interpreters. So that the argument runs, He that inspired these instincts, so real, so deep, so powerful, in the heart of humanity around, to soothe its sorrow, to help its weaknesses, to cement its relationships, all through social and family life--He that inspired these instincts in His creatures, shall He not Himself possess them, and that too in far higher measure? While human friendship and human love remain to us, they will be all the more welcome and all the more precious, as windows through which we see the wealth of the Eternal sympathy, stepping-stones by which we may climb to the mystery of the Eternal love. Never let that man or woman despair of the pity and helpfulness of God while there remains to him or to her the beating of one kind human heart, still interested, still loving, still hopeful, still true. So long as that heart is there, it is a witness and a pledge of the friendliness of Gods heart, that great charity of His which suffers long and is kind, and which is still ready to receive you, still anxious to help you, if you will only believe Him, and go back. Yes, and when human friendships vanish, and human ties dissolve, when we can speak of them no longer as possessions of the present, but only as memories of the past, we can learn the lesson, we can use the argument notwithstanding. The eye that brightened with welcome at the sight of our coming, or moistened with sadness at the hour of our going, may have mouldered in the dust of the grave; the ear that lent itself--oh, how readily!--to the tale of our joys and sorrows, our successes and failures, may be sealed in the dulness of decay: but He that planted the eye and the ear lives on, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, unchanged in His sympathy, His helpfulness, and His love; and when father and mother forsake, then the Lord will take up. I say all this is comfort--comfort for those who are willing to accept of it, on Gods own terms, in Gods own way. Recognize Him as a Father, receive Him as a Father, revealed and guaranteed in Christ. (W. A. Gray.)
Mans powers the gifts and emblems of God
I. Mans powers are the gifts of God.
1. This fact should check all tendency to pride in the man of superior endowments.
2. This fact should check all tendency to envy in the man of inferior ability.
II. Mans powers are the emblems of God. The argument implied is, that what He has given us, He has in Himself.
1. A sense of moral justice.
2. Affection for offspring.
3. Power of spontaneous action.
4. Sense of personality. In conclusion: Man! adore thy Maker. Wipe from the mirror of thy being all the pollutions of sin, that, having a pure heart, thou mayest see God Himself, and be blessed for evermore. (Homilist.)
The Planter of the ear must hear
I. The notion that God cannot hear or see is pernicious. We perceive that men who talked in this godless fashion were proud. Hence the prayer, Lift up Thyself, Thou Judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud. Pride is very apt to grow great when knowledge is small, and reverence is absent. Proud language usually goes with profane talk and blasphemous ideas; for it comes of the same kindred. How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves? . . . Their tongue walketh through the earth, saith David. No bounds can be set to the evil perambulations of an atheistic tongue. Not even heaven itself is free from the assaults of its pride. They slander God Himself, because they imagine that He does not hear. Nor is this the end of the mischief. When the fear of God is taken away from men, they frequently proceed to persecute His servants. They break in pieces Thy people, O Lord, and afflict Thine heritage. If they cannot get at the leader, if they cannot smite the shepherd, they will at least worry the flock. They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. Take God away, and what a place this world would be! Without religion our earth would soon become a huge Aceldama, a field of blood. A world without God is a world without fear, without law, without order, without hope. Note well, that if we were persuaded that God did not hear, and did not see, there would be an end of worship. Would there not? Could you worship a deaf God? Nor is this all: it seems to me that there is, to a large extent, an end of the moral sense. If there be no God to punish sin, then every man will do as seemeth right in his own eyes; and why should he not?
II. The notion that God cannot see and hear is an absurd notion. The very idea of hearing seems to me to necessitate that He who conceived the idea, was Himself able to hear. He could not have borrowed the idea, for there was no other being but Himself in the beginning: whence took He the thought, but from His own Being? He that invented the idea, also planned the way by which hearing would become possible. What an intellect was that which forged the link between matter and mind, so that the movements of particles of air, and the impression made by these upon the drum of the ear should turn into the impressions upon mind and heart! And can you believe that this marvellous instrument for hearing was made by a deaf God, or a dead God, or an impersonal power; or that it came into existence through a fortuitous concourse of atoms? But even if you had an ear made--and I suppose that it would be no very great difficulty to fashion, in wax, or some other substance, an exact resemblance to an ear--could you produce hearing then? God alone gives the life which hears. That particular point in which motion is translated into audible sound--where is that? There is a spiritual something--the true man, and this it is which God makes. Do you know yourself? Could you put your finger on yourself? Oh, no; that mystic being, that strange, half Godlike existence, the soul, is not within the range of our senses. He that made the soul, has He no soul? Can He not hear?
III. That God hears His own must be especially certain, from the very argument of the text. Why? say you. Why, because they have new and spiritual ears, and they have God-given spiritual eyes; and He that planted the spiritual ear, shall He not hear? And He that formed the spiritual eye, shrill He not see? Do you imagine that if God has given us the grace to hear His voice, He will not hear us when we lift up our voices to Him? Rather let us each one say, I will hear what God the Lord will speak; for He will speak peace unto His people and to His saints. He has created in the minds of some of you a sense of need, and will He not pity you? You were not hungry for mercy; you were not thirsty for righteousness till His Spirit came and gave you life, and with that life the soul-hunger. Will He not satisfy the hunger He creates? Will He not fulfil the desire He has implanted? In addition to this, He makes us long after holiness; will He not work it in us? Does your child pine to be good, and can you help him to be good, and will you not do so? To the ear which God has enabled to hear His call the Lord will lend His own ear to hear prayer. He that makes us long for purity will work it in us.
IV. A belief what God hears and sees has a very beneficial tendency upon those who firmly hold it. It works good in a thousand ways. Time would fail me to recount a tithe of them. It may suffice to take a thought or two, and turn the matter over in our minds. If we feel that God sees and hears, what an incentive it is to do right, and to be valiant for the truth! Soldiers will play the man in the presence of their prince. If our Lord looks on, what will we not do and dare? The same sense of His presence will act as a check to any and every deed of sin. We cannot indulge the thought of evil when the Lord Himself hears that thought. Does the Lord look on, and shall I sin in His Divine presence? It acts grandly as a preservative against the desire of applause and the fear of man. He who knows assuredly that God hears him will speak the truth though all the world should listen, or though no one but God should hear him. The assurance that God sees and hears is a wonderful care-killer. Why should I be anxious? If the Lord knows our soul in adversity, and if His eye is ever upon us, are we not safe? And, oh, how this will tend to promote your fellowship with God! How we love Him who heareth us always! Since He is always seeing us, we learn to see Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The ear
Among the most skilful and assiduous physiologists of our age have been those who have given their time to the examination of the ear and the study of its arches, its walls, its floor, its canals, its aqueducts, its galleries, its intricacies, its convolutions, its Divine machinery, and yet, it will take another thousand years before the world comes to any adequate appreciation of what God did when He planned and executed the infinite and overmastering architecture of the human ear. The most of it is invisible, and the microscope breaks down in the attempt at exploration. The cartilage which we call the ear is only the storm door of the great temple clear down out of sight, next door to the immortal soul. Great scientists have attempted to walk the Appian Way of the human ear, but the mysterious pathway has never been fully trodden but by two feet--the foot of sound and the foot of God. Three ears on each side the head--the external ear, the middle ear, the internal ear, but all connected by most wonderful telegraphy. The external ear in all ages adorned by precious stones or precious metals. The Temple of Jerusalem partly built by the contribution of earrings, and Homer in the Iliad speaks of Hera, the three bright drops, her glittering gems suspended from the ear; and many of the adornments of modern times were only copies of her jewels found in Pompeiian museum and Etruscan vase. But while the outer ear may be adorned by human art, the middle and the internal ear are adorned and garnished only by the hand of the Lord Almighty. The stroke of a key of yonder organ sets the air vibrating, and the external air catches the undulating sound and passes it on through the bonelets of the middle ear to the internal ear, and the three thousand fibres of the human brain take up the vibration and roll the sound on into the soul. The ear so strange a contrivance that by the estimate of one scientist it can catch the sound of 73,700 vibrations in a second. The outer ear taking in all kinds of sound, whether the crash of an avalanche or the hum of a bee. The sound passing to the inner door of the outside ear halts until another mechanism, Divine mechanism, passes it on by the bonelets of the middle ear, and, coming to the inner door of that second ear, the sound has no power to come further until another Divine mechanism passes it on through into the inner ear, and then the sound comes to the rail track of the brain branchlet, and rolls on and on until it comes to sensation, and there the curtain drops, and a hundred gates shut, and the voice of God seems to say to all human inspection, Thus far and no farther. In this vestibule of the palace of the soul, how many kings of thought have done penance of lifelong study and got no further than the vestibule! Mysterious home of reverberation and echo. Grand Central Depot of sound. Head-quarters to which there come quick despatches, part the way by cartilages, part the way by air, part the way by bone, part the way by nerve--the slowest despatch plunging into the ear at the speed of 1,090 feet a second. Small instrument of music on which is played all the music you ever heard, from the grandeurs of an August thunderstorm to the softest breathings of a flute. Small instrument of music, only a quarter of an inch of surface and the thinness of one two-hundred-and-fiftieth part of an inch, and that thinness divided into three layers. In that ear musical staff, lines, spaces, bar, and rest. Oh, the ear, the God-honoured ear, grooved with Divine sculpture and poised with Divine gracefulness and upholstered with curtains of Divine embroidery, and corridored by Divine carpentry, and pillared with Divine architecture, and chiselled in bone of Divine masonry, and conquered by processions of Divine marshalling. The ear! A perpetual point of interrogation, asking How? A perpetual point of apostrophe appealing to God. How surpassingly sacred the human earl You had better be careful how you let the sound of blasphemy or uncleanness step into that holy of holies. The Bible speaks of dull ears, and of uncircumcised ears, and of itching ears, and of rebellious ears, and of open ears, and of those who have all the organs of hearing and yet who seem to be deaf, for it cries to them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. To show how much Christ thought of the human ear, He one day met a man who was deaf, came up to him, and put a finger of the right hand into the orifice of the left ear of the patient, and put a finger of the left hand into the orifice of the right ear of the patient, and agitated the tympanum, and startled the bonelets, and, with a voice that rang clear through into the mans soul, cried, Ephphatha! and the polypoid growths gave way, and the inflamed auricle cooled off, and that man, who had not heard a sound for many years, that night heard the wash of the waves of Galilee against the limestone shelving. To show how much Christ thought of the human ear, when the Apostle Peter got mad and with one slash of his sword dropped the ear of Malchus into the dust, Christ created a new external ear for Malchus corresponding with the middle ear and the internal ear that no sword could clip away. And to show what God thinks of the ear we are informed of the fact that in the millennial summer which shall roseate all the earth the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, all the vascular growths gone--all deformation of the listening organ cured, corrected, changed. Are you ready now for the question of my text? Have you the endurance to bear its overwhelming suggestiveness? Will you take hold of some pillar and balance yourself under the semi-omnipotent stroke? He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? Shall the God who gives us the apparatus with which we hear the sounds of the world not be able Himself to catch up song and groan and blasphemy and worship? Does He give us a faculty which He has not Himself? Drs.Wild and Gruber and Toynbee invented the acoumeter and other instruments by which to measure and examine the ear, and do these instruments know more than the doctors who made them? He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? Just as sometimes an entrancing strain of music will linger in your ears for days after you have heard it, and just as a sharp cry of pain I once heard while passing through Bellevue Hospital clung to my ear for weeks, and just as a horrid blasphemy in the street sometimes haunts ones ears for days, so God not only hears, but holds the songs, the prayers, the groans, the worship, the blasphemy. How we have all wondered at the phonograph, which holds not only the words you utter but the very tone of your voice, so that a hundred years from now, that instrument turned, the very words you now utter and the very tone of your voice will be reproduced. Amazing phonograph! But more wonderful is Gods power to hold, to retain. Ah! what delightful encouragement for our prayers! What an awful fright for our hard speeches! What assurance of warm-hearted sympathy for all our griefs! He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The eye
The imperial organ of the human system is the eye. All up and down the Bible God honours it, extols it, illustrates it, or arraigns it. Five hundred and thirty-four times it is mentioned in the Bible. Omnipresence the eyes of the Lord are in every place. Divine care--as the apple of the eye. The clouds--the eyelids of the morning. Irreverence--the eye that mocketh at its father. Pride--Oh, how lofty are their eye! Inattention--the fools eye in the ends of the earth. Divine inspection--wheels full of eyes. Suddenness--in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump. Olivetic sermon--the light of the body is the eye. This mornings text--He that formed the eye, shall He not see?
I. The human eye.. If I refer to the physiological facts suggested by the former part of my text, it is only to bring out in plainer way the theological lessons of the latter part of my text. He that formed the eye, shall He not see? I suppose my text referred to the human eye, since it excels all others in structure and adaptation. Man, placed at the head of all living creatures, must have supreme equipment, while the blind fish in the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky have only an undeveloped organ of sight, an apology for the eye, which, if through some crevice in the mountain they should get into the sunlight, might be developed into positive eyesight. See how God honoured the eye before He created it. He cried until chaos was irradiated with the utterance, Let there be light! In other words, before He introduced man into this temple of the world He illuminated if, prepared it for the eyesight. And so, after the last human eye has been destroyed in the final demolition of the world, stars are to fall, and the sun is to cease its shining, and the moon is to turn into blood.
II. To show how God honours the eye, look at the two halls built for the residence of the eyes. Seven bones making the wall for each eye, the seven bones curiously wrought together. A kingly palace of ivory is considered rich, but the halls for the residence of the human eyes are richer by so much as human bone is more sacred than elephantine tusk. See how God honoured the eyes when He made a roof for them, so that the sweat of toil should not smart them; and the rain dashing against the forehead should not drip into them; the eyebrows not bending over the eye, but reaching to the right and to the left, so that the rain and the sweat should be compelled to drop upon the cheek instead of falling into this Divinely protected human eyesight. See how God honoured the eye in the fact presented by anatomists and physiologists that there are 800 contrivances in every eye. For window shutters, the eyelids opening and closing 30,000 times a day. The eyelashes so constructed that they have their selection as to what shall be admitted, saying to the dust, Stay out, and saying to the light, Come in. For inside curtain the iris, or pupil of the eye, according as the light is greater or less, contracting or dilating.
III. A contrivance so wonderful that it can see the sun ninety-five millions of miles away, and the point of a pin. Telescope and microscope in the same contrivance. The astronomer swings and moves this way and that, and adjusts and readjusts the telescope until he gets it into the right focus; the microscopist moves this way and that, and adjusts and readjusts the magnifying glass until it is prepared to do its work; but the human eye, without a touch, beholds the star and the smallest insect. The traveller among the Alps, with one glance taking in Mont Blanc and the face of his watch to see whether he has time to climb it.
IV. What an anthem of praise to God is the human eye! The tongue is speechless and a clumsy instrument of expression as compared with it. Have you not seen it flash with indignation or kindle with enthusiasm, or expand with devotion, or melt with sympathy, or stare with fright, or leer with villany, or droop with sadness or pale with envy, or fire with revenge, or twinkle with mirth, or beam with love? It is tragedy and comedy and pastoral and lyric in turn.
V. Divine inspection. Shall Herschel not know as much as his telescope? Shall Fraunhofer not know as much as his spectroscope? Shall Swammerdan not know as much as his microscope? Shall Dr. Hooke not know as much as his micrometer? Shall the thing formed know more than its master? He that formed the eye, shall He not see? The recoil of this question is tremendous. We stand at the centre of a vast circumference of observation. No privacy. On us, eyes of cherubim, eyes of seraphim, eyes of archangel, eyes of God. The eyes of the Lord are in every place. His eyelids try the children of men. His eyes were as a flame of fire. I will guide thee with Mine eye. Oh, the eye of God, so full of pity, so full of power, so full of love, so full of indignation, so full of compassion, so full of mercy! How it peers through the darkness! How it outshines the day! How it glares upon the offenders! How it beams on the penitent scull Oh the eye of God. It sees our sorrows to assuage them, sees our perplexities to disentangle them, sees our wants to sympathize with them. If we fight Him back, the eye of an antagonist. If we ask His grace, the eye of an everlasting friend.
VI. There is no such thing as hidden transgression. A dramatic advocate in olden times, at night in a court-room, persuaded of the innocence of his client charged with murder, and of the guilt of the witness who was trying to swear the poor mans life away--that advocate took up two bright lamps and thrust them close up to the face of the witness, and cried, May it please the court and gentlemen of the jury--behold the murderer! and the man, practically under that awful glare, confessed that he was the criminal instead of the man arraigned at the bar. Oh! you say, my affairs are so insignificant I cant realize that God sees me and sees my affairs. Can you see the point of a pin? Can you see the eye of a needle? Can you see a mote in the sunbeam? And has God given you that power of minute observation, and does He not possess it Himself? But you say, God is in one world, and I am in another world; He seems so far off from me I dont really think He sees what is going on in my life. Can you see the sun ninety-five millions of miles away, and do you not think God has as prolonged vision? But you say, There are phases of my life, and there are colours--shades of colour--in my annoyances and my vexations, that I dont think God can understand. Does not God gather up all the colours, and all the shades of colour, in the rainbow? And do you suppose there is any phase or any shade in your life that He has not gathered up in His own heart? (T. De Witt Talmage.)
God hears
He who knows assuredly that God hears him, will speak the truth though all the world should listen, or though no one but God should hear him. We do not want applause from men, since God hears us. If the Queen were by, and a soldier performed a deed of valour, and a person were to say to him, You did well, and you may be proud that Corporal Brown and Sergeant Smith saw you and approved of what you did. Oh, says be, I care nothing for corporals and other petty officers; Her Majesty herself looked at me, and said, Well done. She will, with her own bands, put the Victoria Cross upon me in due time. That is the reward I seek. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v10 General Information:
General Information:
The writer continues instructing the wicked people.
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He who disciplines the nations, does he not correct?
This question can be translated as a statement. It is implied that Yahweh corrects his people. AT: "You know that Yahweh corrects the nations, so you can be sure that he will correct his people!" or "he will punish his people!" (See: Rhetorical Question and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
does he not correct
This can be stated in positive form. Possible meanings are 1) God corrects. AT: "he corrects" or 2) God punishes. "he punishes" (See: Litotes)
that they are vapor
Here the thoughts of men are compared to vapor or steam that disappears into the air. This metaphor shows how unimportant and useless they are. (See: Metaphor)
vapor
"mist." See how this word is translated in Psalms 39:11
translationWords
discipline
know
Yahweh
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv9–11 94:9 It is preposterous that those with ears and…
94:9 It is preposterous that those with ears and eyes would imagine their Creator to be deaf and blind.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.