The Psalmist wants to know his way through this world, and his duty in this mortal life.  Therefore he must learn the laws and rules of this world.  And he has the sense to see, that no one can teach him the rules of the world, but the Ruler of the world, and the Maker of the world.

Then comes the terrible question—­too many, alas! have not got it answered rightly yet—­

But are there any rules at all in the world?  Does The Lord manage the world by rules and laws?  Or does He let things go by chance and accident, and take no care about them?  Is there such a thing as God’s Providence:  or is there not?  To that the Psalmist answers firmly, because he is inspired by the Spirit of God—­

O Lord, Thy Word endureth—­is settled—­for ever in heaven.  In Thee is no carelessness, neglect, slothfulness, nor caprice.  Thou hast no variableness, neither shadow of turning.  Thou hast laid the foundation of the earth, and it abideth.  They continue this day according to Thine ordinance; for all things serve Thee.  The world is full of settled and enduring rules and laws; and God keeps to them.  The Psalmist looks at the sun, moon and stars over his head, each keeping its settled course, and its settled season:  and he sees them all obeying law.  He looks at summer and winter, seedtime and harvest:  and he sees them obeying law.  He looks at birth and growth, at decay and death; and sees them too, obeying law.  He looks at the very flowers beneath his feet, and the buds in the woodland, and all the crowd of living things about him, animal, vegetable and mineral:  and they too obey law; each after their kind.  The world, he says, is full of law.  It is a settled world, an orderly world, made and governed by a Lord of order, who makes laws and enforces laws; a Lord whose Word endures for ever in heaven.  Therefore—­he feels—­I can trust that Lord.  If He has laws for the beasts and birds, He must have, much more, laws for men.  If He has laws for men’s bodies, much more has He laws for their souls.  What I have to do, is to ask Him to teach me those laws, that I may live.

But then comes another, and even a more awful question—­If I ask Him, will He teach me?  Alas! alas! too many have not found the answer yet; too many of those who know most about the Laws of Nature, and reverence those laws most:  and all honour to them for so doing; for, even though they know it not, they are preparing the way of the Lord, and making His paths straight.  But they have not found the right answer to that question yet.  Still there the question is; and you and I, and every soul of man, must get some reasonable answer or other to it, if we wish to be men indeed, men in spirit and in truth; and it is this—­

If I ask this Word of God to teach me His Laws—­Will He teach me?  Will He hear me?  Can He hear:  or is He Himself a mere brute force, a law of nature and necessity?  And even if not, will He hear?  Or is He, too, like those Epicurean gods, of whom our great poet sings—­a sad and hopeless song:—­