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written at a time when she was in captivity under them. It contains, 1—4. a complaint of sufferings; and 5—20. a description at large of the struggle between distrust and faith; which latter prevails, by having recourse to the consideration of ancient mercies; particularly that of redemption from Egypt. The Psalm is admirably calculated for the use and consolation of any church, or soul, when in affliction and distress.

"1. I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me."

Uneasiness in the heart will utter itself by the "voice;" and when the pain is intense, the "cry" will be loud. Only let it take a right direction, and ascend to heaven; let the application be made to "God," who will both "hear" and help; not to the world, which will not do one, and cannot do the other. The cries of the Son of God alone were heard for his own sake; the cries of all other men are heard for his sake.

"2. In the day of my trouble I sought the LORD; my sore ran in the night, and ceased not; Heb. my hand was stretched out in the night, and ceased not, or, without intermission: my soul refused to be comforted."

To a soul deeply sensible of the world's vanity, and the misery of sin, every day is a "day of trouble," and the whole time of her pilgrimage is a long, dark, and wearisome "night,” during which she seeks after her beloved by prayer; and for the sake of him, and those future joys which she expects in his presence, the pleasures of sense are put away from her, and she refuses to be comforted" by such comforters. An Israelite cannot enjoy himself in Babylon; a Christian cannot find perfect satisfaction in the world; a return to Jerusalem will employ the thoughts of both.

"3. I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Or, I remembered God, and made a noise, i. e. in prayer to him; I meditated, and my spirit was obscured, or, darkened, through grief and affliction."

This is a fine description of what passes in an afflicted and dejected mind. Between the remembrance of God and his former mercies, and the meditation on the seeming desertion under present calamities, the affections are variously agitated, and the prayers disturbed, like the tumultuous waves of a troubled sea; while the fair light from above is intercepted, and the face of heaven overwhelmed with clouds and darkness.

"4. Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak."

Through grief and anxiety it is that the eyes are made to keep all the watches of the night, and wait in vain for sleep to relieve them from duty, until the dawning of the morning. To a night so spent, may a season of captivity or persecution be compared. Thus the ancient church looked for the first advent of Christ; and thus doth the church, which now is, expect his second; prolonging her vigils, even unto the dawning of that morning, which is at once to put a period to darkness and to sorrow. In the mean time, she giveth herself to meditation and prayer.

"5. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. 6. I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart and my spirit maketh diligent search."

Recollection of former mercies is the proper antidote against a temptation to despair in the day of calamity: and as, in the Divine dispensations, which are always uniform and like themselves, whatever has happened, happens again, when the circumstances are similar; and experience of "ancient times" is to be called in to our aid, and duly consulted. Nay, we may perhaps "remember" the time, when we ourselves were led to compose and utter a "song" of joy and triumph, on occasion of signal mercies vouchsafed us. Upon these topics we should, "in the night of affliction, commune with our own hearts, and make diligent search," as Daniel did in Babylon, into the cause, the nature, and the probable continuance of our

troubles; with the proper methods of shortening, and bringing them to an end, by suffering them to have their intended and full effect, in a sincere repentance and thorough reformation.

66 7. Will the LORD cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? 8. Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? 9. Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?"

The Psalmist now relates the process of his meditations, and of that controversy which arose in his heart between faith and distrust. While he viewed the distressful scene around him, he found himself strongly tempted to question God's love of the church; to think that he had finally rejected his people; that the promised mercy of redemption would never be accomplished; and that indignation had constrained the bowels of our heavenly Father, which no longer yearned towards his afflicted children. These were the thoughts suggested to a desponding soul by the desolations of Sion at that time; and the state of things in the world may possibly be such, as to suggest the like thoughts to many in the Christian church, before our Lord shall appear again for her final redemption. Imaginations of the same cast will offer themselves to the mind of the sinner, when the hand of God has lain long and heavy upon him, by the infliction of outward calamities, or the terrors of conscience.

"10. And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years, or, changes, of the right hand of the Most High."

To the insinuations of distrust, faith now begins to reply. The sufferer checks himself in his former train of thought, and humbly acknowledges it to have sprung from a mind dispirited, and rendered timid by misfortunes; "I said, This is my infirmity;" but he immediately strengthens himself by reflecting, that all "changes" in the conditions of men are effected, for reasons of infinite wisdom and goodness, by "the right hand of the Most High;" which is not shortened, but can still, as formerly, when he sees fit, deliver and exalt, as well as punish and depress his people. What, therefore, though the daughter of Sion be in captivity, and her enemies insult over her? Messias cometh, who shall redeem her and all nations; and then shall the "right hand of the Most High" work a universal and a glorious "change" upon the earth.

"11. I will remember the works of the LORD; surely I will remember thy wonders of old. 12. I will meditate also of all thy works, and talk of thy doings."

Thus restored to a right frame of mind, the Psalmist, instead of brooding any longer over the calamities of his own time, resolves to turn his thoughts towards the Divine dispensations of old; to meditate on God's former works and wonders; his works of justice and mercy, of power and wisdom, of nature and grace; and by gratefully celebrating them, to invigorate his faith in the salvation to come, of which they were so many earnests and pledges. And it is this consideration which makes the eucharistic Psalms ever-pleasing and ever-comfortable to the mind; they are appeals to those attributes which have been so often displayed in the cause of the church; they are acts of faith, looking backward to the past, and forward to the future; they are praises, and they are prayers.

13. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary, or, in holiness; who is so great a god as our God."

Faith, now reinstated in its sovereignty over the prejudices and fears of the soul, and again placed upon the judgment-seat, pronounces the "ways" or proceedings of God to be such, as, when weighed in the balance of the "sanctuary," and judged of by the Divine rule and manner of acting, will be found agreeable to the standard of perfect " holiness." An assurance is likewise expressed, that the power of God, however it may for a time lie dormant, yet still retains the same superiority, of which former exertions show it to have been possessed, over the gods of the nations, the elements

of nature, and the powers of the world: insomuch that nothing, which was ever called by others, or called itself, "god," was able to stand before Jehovah, the God of Israel: "Who is so great a god as our God?" Thus, "All the power is given unto me in heaven and in earth," saith our blessed Lord, Matt. xxviii. 18. for the everlasting consolation of the Christian church.

"14. Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people. 15. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph."

Israel, in times of trouble and distress, was wont to look back to the "wonders" wrought in Egypt, and the redemption of all her tribes from that house of bondage. We Christians are taught, while we use the same words, to regard parallel, but more important transactions; we reflect on the "wonders wrought for the bodies and souls of men, by the strength and arm of Jehovah," revealed and manifested to the world in Christ; and we celebrate the redemption, not of the "sons of Jacob and Joseph" only, but of all nations, from the bondage of corruption; a redemption, compared with which the deliverance from Egypt, though glorious in itself, hath yet no glory at all, by reason of the glory that so far excelleth. Our confidence in God, during the seasons of affliction, should therefore rise in proportion. "16. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid; the depths also were troubled."

The waters of the Red Sea are here beautifully represented as endued with sensibility, as seeing, feeling, and being confounded, even to the lowest depths, at the presence and power of their great Creator, when he commanded them to open a way, and to form a wall on each side of it, until his people were passed over; until his people were passed over whom he had redeemed. In this amazing transaction let us behold, as in a glass, the salvation of believers by baptism, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who made the depths of the grave, as he had done those of the sea, a way for his ransomed to pass over; and the church, like another Israel, saw her enemies, in effect, dead at her feet.

"17. The clouds poured out water; the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. 18. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world; the earth trembled and shook."

It is said, Exod. xiv. 24. that at the time when Israel was passing the sea," the Lord looked upon the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot wheels, and made them to go heavily; so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians." The verses of our Psalm now before us, seem to explain more particularly the manner in which the Lord "looked upon, and troubled, and fought against the Egyptians," upon that occasion: namely, by thunders and lightnings, storms and tempests, rain, hail, and earthquake, the usual tokens and instruments of Almighty displeasure. Josephus, in like manner, relates that the destruction of the Egyptians was accompa nied by storms of rain from heaven; by dreadful thunders and lightnings; and in short, by every possible circumstance of terror, which could testify and inflict upon man the vengeance of an incensed God. From scenes like these we learn to form an idea of that power, which discomfited the infer nal host; raised Christ from the dead; vanquished opposition and persecu tion; subdued the world to the obedience of faith; supports and protects the church; will overthrow antichrist; raise the dead: cast the wicked, with death and Satan, into the lake of fire; and exalt the righteous, to sing, with angels in heaven, the "song of Moses and of the Lamb." See Rev.

IV. 3.

"19. Thy way is in the sea, and thy paths in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known."

The dispensations and ways of God, like the passage through the Red

Sea, are all full of mercy to his people; but they are also, like that, often unusual, marvellous, inscrutable; and we can no more trace his footsteps, than we could have done those of Israel, after the waters had returned to their place again. Let us resolve, therefore, to trust in him at all times; and let us think we hear Moses saying to us, as he did to the Israelites, when seemingly reduced to the last extremity; "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah," Exod. xiv. 13.

"20. Thou leddest thy people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron."

The loving-kindness of God towards Israel did not stop at the Red Sea, but he conducted his chosen flock, by the guidance of faithful pastors, through all the perils of the wilderness, to the land of promise. We likewise, through thy mercy, O blessed Lord Jesus, have passed the Red Sea at our baptism and are now journeying in the wilderness. Give us those meek, and lowly, and tractable dispositions, which become the sheep of thy pasture; set over us skilful and vigilant shepherds: and be thou ever both with them and with us; until, having surmounted all difficulties and dangers, led by thy grace, and supported by thy providence, we all come in perfect safety to the land of everlasting rest; there to live with thee, one fold under one shepherd, world without end.

FIFTEENTH DAY.-EVENING PRAYER.

PSALM LXXVIII.

ARGUMENT.

This Psalm containeth a declaration of God's dealings with his people, and of their behaviour to him in Egypt, in the wilderness, and after their settlement in Canaan, to the days of David. It is written for the use and admonition of Christians; who may here view, as in a glass, the mercies they have received, and the returns which, alas, they have but too often made for them.

"1. Give ear, O my people to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth."

In this verse the Psalmist opens his commission, and speaks as one having authority from above to instruct the world. He demands a large and attentive audience, while, by a series of examples, he sets forth the goodness of God, and the ingratitude of man, for the admonition of succeed. ing ages, to the end of time. St. Paul, speaking of the very transactions related in our Psalm, saith of them, "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples, Gr. Turo, types; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come," 1 Cor. x. 11. We Christians, therefore, must consider ourselves as the "people" who are to "give ear to the law," or "doctrine," inculcated by the following epitome of the Israelitish history: we must "incline our ears to the words of" the prophet's "mouth."

2. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old; 3. Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us."

The Psalm, being in itself a plain narrative of facts, can contain nothing parabolical or enigmatical in it, unless those facts were what St. Paul affirms them to have been, "ensamples," types, or representations of other facts relative to the Christian church. As facts, they were "heard and known," and handed down from father to son: but with respect to the instructions and admonitions comprehended in them, and to be extracted by an application to parallel times and circumstances, they had the nature of a "parable," requiring wisdom and attention so to understand and apply

them. It is observable that our Lord is, by St. Matthew, said to have spoken to the multitude altogether in parables, "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables," &c. citing the second verse of the Psalm now before us, Matt. xiii. 35. If it doth not follow from this citation, that the prophet actually speaks the Psalm in the person of Christ, yet thus much at least is evident from it, that the history of old Israel somewhat resembles the letter of the gospel parables, and contains, shadowed out under it, the history of a correspondent state of things in the new Israel, or church Christian.* And although the Psalm, like a large and capacious palace, be laid out into a multitude of different apartments: yet, perhaps, we may find that the Scriptures of the New Testament will furnish us with a key which will gain us admission into every one of them, and put us in possession of the treasures of divine wisdom therein deposited.

"4. We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come, Heb. the latter generation, the praises of the LORD and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done."

The writer of this Psalm is desirous that "the praises of Jehovah, his strength, and the wonderful works that he hath done," an account of which had reached his own time, should be transmitted through all the periods of the Jewish economy, down to the 17, the "latter generation," or generation to arise in the "latter days;" the generation of the faithful to be begotten unto God from among the Gentiles, through the Gospel. Of this generation are we, who now in these words of the holy Psalmist, do from age to age "show the praises of the Lord," our Saviour, “and his strength, and his wondrous works that he hath done" for us, as he promised and foreshowed in his dispensations of old time. The glorious theme was delivered by the Israelitish to the Christian church, and will be resumed in heaven, there for ever to employ the tongues of saints, and the harps of angels.

5. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children; 6. That the generation to come, or, latter generation, might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise, and declare them to their children."

The account of God's dealings with his people, to be celebrated in our Psalm, begins with the "law," or "testimony, appointed and established in Israel," by the hand of Moses. Under these names are comprehended not only the precepts and ceremonies, but the several transactions to which they referred, and in commemoration of which they were instituted: as also that future salvation, to which they, as well as the transactions, had an aspect. Thus the passover, for instance, looked backward to the redemption by Moses, and forward to that by Messiah. The law thus considered, as involving the Gospel within it, was, to understanding and pious Israelites, the fountain of wisdom, and source of delight. They were to meditate therein day and night, and teach their children to do likewise; until, with its types realized, and its prophecies accomplished in the Redeemer, it should go forth out of Sion in perfect beauty, and ran and be glorified among the nations. The "law" and the "testimony" are now become ours; and it is our duty to transmit them down to latest posterity, until Jesus shall return to judgment.

7. That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God; but keep his commandments: 8. And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God."

The reason is here assigned why God gave Israel a law, and commanded

"In parabolis"-Aliud decit; aliud innuit: ac præteritorum specie futura præsagit. Id quoque ex personâ Christi, Matt. xiii. 35. Bossuet.

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