chapter ii. 21, 22, etc.
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
The wicked build houses on the earth; the earth is their home, where they desire to be, and they imagine to settle themselves in it. The upright do set up tabernacles only, seeking another country, and as knowing the uncertainty upon which the world standeth. For though the habitation of the wicked be a _house,_ and rooted in the earth, yet it shall not only be _shaken,_ but _overthrown,_ and though the abiding of the upright be but a _tabernacle_ pinned to the earth, yet shall it stand so safely that it shall _flourish_ like a rooted tree. Wherefore, when in the Revelation we read "Woe to the inhabitants of the earth" (chap. viii. 13), St. Jerome understands it of the wicked only. For a godly man is not an inhabiter of the earth, but a stranger and a sojourner. And his tabernacle doth so flourish, that it reacheth to heaven, for he hath his dwelling in heaven to whom the whole world is an inn.--_Jermin._
The "house of the wicked" may be a most prosperous one, and may seem to be full of peace; but it is doomed. It must become "desolate," literally _astonished;_ which is the eastern way of describing great downfalls. "But the tent of the upright" (another intensive clause) his slenderest possessions; like a sprout; like some poor tender plant, shall _bloom forth._ Such is the meaning of _"flourish."--Miller._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 12.
WHAT SEEMS TO BE, AND WHAT IS.
+I. Human nature needs more light than is found in the human conscience.+ The way which "seems right unto a man" may be "the way of death." A mariner who has insufficient light to observe correctly the needle in the compass, may think he is steering for the haven when he is taking the vessel straight upon the rocks. He may be very sincere in his conviction that he is going right, but his thinking so will not make it so. He needs more light than he has. So the light of conscience is not enough to guide a man with certainty in the true and right way. If conscientious sincerity was an infallible guide Paul would not have "delivered to prison" men and women for being followers of Jesus of Nazareth (Acts. xxii. 4). The way that in his ignorance seemed right to him, was felt by him to be a "way of death" when his conscience was enlightened. Conscience may be deadened by sin, or warped by prejudice or self-interest; it is not a reliable and certain guide. If it were, it was needless for the Son of God to visit the earth and make known the will of His Father--the revelation of God's will in the books of the Old and New Testaments is a superfluity. The existence of the Bible is explained by the fact which is found to be true by all God-taught men, that "the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" (Jer. x. 23). God, by speaking unto men in "sundry times and in divers manners," and especially "in these last days by His Son" (Heb.