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What are we to think of God, his providence, and his promises ?

13. Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency: 14. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.

Nature will be apt upon this occasion to suggest, that all my faith, my charity, and my devotion, all my watching, and fastings, in short, all the labour and pains I have taken in the way of goodness, have been altogether vain and fruitless; since, while the rebellious enemies of God enjoy the world and themselves at pleasure, I, who continue his servant, am in perpetual tribulation and affliction.

15. If I say, I will speak, or, declare, or, preach, thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.

The Psalmist, having thus particularized the disease, proceeds now, like a skilful physician of the soul, to prescribe a medicine for it, which is compounded of many salutary ingredients. And first, to the suggestion of nature, grace opposes the examples of the children of God, who never fell from their hope, in another world, because of their sufferings in this. For a man, therefore, to distrust the divine goodness on that account, is to belie their hope, renounce their faith, and strike his name out of their list.

16. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me.

A second reason why a man should not be too forward to arraign God's dispensations of injustice,

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is the extreme difficulty of understanding and comprehending the whole of them, which indeed is not to be done by the human mind, unless God himself shall vouchsafe it the necessary information. It was too painful for me,' says the Psalmist.

17. Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.

The third argument, with which we may repress the spirit of murmuring and distrust, so apt to be excited by the prosperity of the wicked, is one communicated to us by the word of God, which alone can acquaint us with what is to be the end,' the final portion of sinners at the last day. This is an arrow from the heavenly quiver, which brings down our enemy at once, and lays Dagon prostrate before the ark.

18. Surely thou didst, or, dost, set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.

Worldly prosperity is as the narrow and slippery summit of a mountain, on which, to answer the designs of his providence, God permits the wicked, during his pleasure, to take their station; till at length the fatal hour arrives, when, by a stroke unseen, they fall from thence, and are lost in the fathomless ocean of sorrow, torment, and despair.

19. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.

The sudden alteration which death makes in the state of a powerful and opulent sinner, cannot but affect all around him, though they behold but one

part of it. How much more would they be astonished and terrified, if the curtain between the two worlds were undrawn, and the other half of the change disclosed to view! Let faith do that which sight cannot do; and then the ungodly, however wealthy and honourable, will surely cease to be the objects of our envy.

20. As a dream when one awaketh, so, O Lord, when thou awakest, or, causest them to awake, thou shalt despise their image.

The life of the ungodly is a sleep; their happiness a dream, illusive and transitory; at best a shadow; afterwards, nothing. At the day of death the soul is roused out of this sleep, and the dream vanishes. When God shall thus awaken them, he will despise their image,' he will bring to nought and render utterly contemptible, even in their own sight, as well as that of himself, of his holy angels, and the spirits of the righteous, those imaginary and fantastic pleasures for which they have lost the substantial joys and glories of his heavenly kingdom. Now, therefore, while it will not be in vain, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.' Ephes. v. 14. See Job, xx. 4. &c. Isa. xxix. 8.

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21. Thus my heart was grieved, Heb. in a ferment, and I was pricked in my reins. 22. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.

The Psalmist, fully satisfied with the conduct of Providence, reflects upon the folly of his former uneasiness, and humbly owns, that his doubts were occasioned solely by his ignorance of God's ways;

while he formed his judgment of them without having duly taken into consideration the final issue of things. The last day, when it comes, will bring with it a solution of all difficulties. He who bears impressed upon his mind such an idea of that day, as the Scriptures can give him, may solve them

now.

23. Nevertheless, I am continually with thee; thou hast holden me by my right hand.

The remainder of the Psalm contains the most dutiful and affectionate expressions of a mind perfectly at ease, and reposing itself, with comfortable assurance, on the loving kindness of the Lord, of which it had experienced a fresh instance, in its support under the late temptation, and complete victory over it. I am continually with thee,' as a child under the tender care of a parent; and as a parent, during my danger of falling in a slippery 'thou hast holden me,' thy child, by my path, right hand.'

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24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory.

He who, but a little while ago, seemed to question the providence of God over the affairs of men, now exults in happy confidence of the divine mercy and favour towards himself, nothing doubting but that grace would ever continue to guide him upon earth till glory should crown him in heaven. Such are the blessed effects of going into the sanctuary,' and consulting the 'lively oracles' in all our doubts, difficulties, and temptations.

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25. Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside, Heb. with, or, in comparison of, thee.

The believing soul seems here to speak in the person and with the affection of a spouse, declaring, that not only earth, but heaven itself, would be unsatisfactory and comfortless, without the presence of her beloved Redeemer, the God of her salvation. But there is a pathos in the words themselves, which, though the Christian feels, the commentator cannot express.

26. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

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None of these things, in the abundance of which the wicked place their happiness, can deliver us in the day of death. Flesh' must revert to dust, and the heart' must cease its beating. He alone, therefore, is the proper object of our faith and love, who can support and carry us through the dreadful hour, and then raise us again, to be our 'portion for ever.' Lord Jesu, who hast so graciously promised to become our portion in the next world, prevent us from choosing any other in this.

27. For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed, or, wilt destroy, all them that go a whoring from thee.

They who are far from God,' are just so far from salvation; and of course, if they remain in that situation, must perish.' Nor have they reason to expect any other fate, who in their hearts depart from the holy Jesus, after he has betrothed them to himself in righteousness; and prefer to him the vilest and basest of his enemies, the world

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