04.019. Limiting God by Unbelief
Limiting God by Unbelief Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel-- Psalms 78:41.
Introduction, Psalms 78:1-9. The Psalm proper begins at Psalms 78:10, and extends to Psalms 78:72 --sixty-two verses. Midway is Psalms 78:41, which is thus the center of the Psalm and of its lessons. Here it is charged against Israelites that they “provoked God in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert”; that they turned back and tempted Him and limited--set limits to--the Holy One of Israel, and that they remembered not His hand. For illustration of this, comp. Exodus 17:1-16 and Numbers 21:1-10, and Hebrews 3:7-19; Hebrews 4:1-11, which last is the New Testament commentary on these Old Testament transactions.
These Limitations, set upon God by unbelief, were manifestly two:
They limited God in their conceptions of His power--of what He was and could do.
They limited God in the exercise of His power--His practical ability to do--by their limited capacity to receive blessing.
The Psalm teaches us that these limitations were set principally by three means:
By Forgetfulness. They forgat His works and wonders (Psalms 78:11).
By Lawlessness. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law (Psalms 78:10).
By Faithlessness. They believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation (Psalms 78:22).
These three specifications complete the analysis of the Psalm’s contents and explain all its teachings. The philosophy of limitation is equally plain and easy to be understood.
Forgetfulness limits God by making us unmindful and unthankful. All the records of the past are meant as an argument to faith and a rebuke to discouragement. But when His past mercies are forgotten all the inspiration furnished by experience is lost.
Lawlessness limits God by the disobedience of heart and will, which constantly challenges punishment instead of blessing. How can God in self-consistency continue to bestow favor upon the rebellious? This would be to set a premium upon disobedience.
Faithlessness limits God by shutting the doors to the incoming of blessing. Much of the highest good depends upon our power to receive. “The light of the body is the eye”--because all the light of day would not illumine an eyeless man. Faith is capacity to perceive and receive; and without it there can be no taking of God’s gifts.
Thus the limits set upon God are three; a treacherous memory, a rebellious will, and an unbelieving heart. Where these exist in us, it is like going to war against a powerful enemy, with an empty treasury, with no allies, and no weapons.