Thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel.
Divine appointment and man’s doing
There are both sides of the great division in evangelical theology--Arminianism and Calvinism: man’s doing, and God’s planning. The Lord said that David should lead Israel; and David did lead Israel. And the people of Israel gave a fair prominence to both sides of the question. They saw that David could do what the Lord had said he should do; and they knew that the Lord had said that David should do what they saw he could do. As a practical matter, these two sides of the truth have to be considered by all of the Lord’s people, in all their doing and in all their judging. If a man is called of God to a special work, the man must show by his doing that he is the very man whom God has called, and who was the man to be called of God. And in judging of another’s fitness for his work, it is right for us to consider the call of God to that man, as well as that man’s apparent success in his work. If the man is clearly out of the place to which he was called of God, all his ability and apparent fitness for this other place must be counted insufficient to inspire confidence in him for permanent success here. It has been well said, as to a Christian’s personal duty in God’s service, that he ought to work in his appointed sphere as if everything, depended on his own exertions, while he ought to trust as if everything depended on God’s strength as given to him in that sphere. (H. Clay Trumbull.)
