As for the psalm from whence these words are taken, we are told in the title, that it was composed by David, but are left to conjecture the particular occasion of it. Dr. Patrick refers it to the latter end of his time, and to the combat that he had with the Philistines in his declining age; when we are told, that David waxed faint, and was in great danger of being killed by a giant, if Abishai, the brother of Joab, had not seasonably rescued him; upon which it is added, that his subjects sware, he should No more go out to battle, lest he should quench the light of Israel. To these words David is supposed to allude, when he says, The Lord is my light, and my salvation, whom shall I fear?-Mine enemies came upon me to eat up my flesh; and I had fainted, unless I had believedt. But I am rather inclined to conjecture, that this psalm was composed by him in his younger years, when he was under persecution by Saul. There is not a line in it, which doth not agree to this supposition; and there are several verses, which cannot so well be accommodated to the other; especially the 12th, in which he represents his dangers as arising from false witnesses. Now it is not easy to imagine what mischief they could have done him amongst the philistines, who opposed him in a national, rather than a personal quarrel; but he expressly declares elsewhere, that the lying words of some treacherous persons had exasperated Saul against him‡; and complains of false tongues, in those psalms, which are, by their title, fixed to this period of his history§. I might add, that the words of the text seem to favour this supposition; for David doth not here say, that his father and mother had already forsaken him, but only speaks of it as what might happen. Now, as we are elsewhere told, that when David was but a lad, His father was an old man, it is very improbable, that both Jesse and his wife should have been living at the time of this philistine war, when David himself was grown old and feeble. If this argument be of weight to fix the general occasion of the psalm, it is probable that this verse may lead us to the particular time of its composure. We are told, that when David had taken shelter at Adullam, from the violence of Saul, and had raised a band of men for his defence, he conveyed His father and mother to the king of Moab, desiring that, till providence had brought his affairs to a determination, that prince would shelter them from the fury of Saul, which might otherwise have proved fatal to them, as it had just before done, to the priests of the Lord. Perhaps this was the pious reflection of David, about the time his parents were to remove; When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up: As if he should have said, " Though an host of my enemies be encamping against me, and the nation be rising in arms to oppose me; and though I be forced to dismiss my aged parents, at a time when I have the greatest occasion for their prudent advice, and their tender consolations; yet this is my comfort, that God is with me: He will supply what I lose in them; he will take me up, and nourish me as his own child, when their parental tenderness can afford me no farther support. The words will naturally afford us these two plain remarks, which, with the improvement of them, will be the foundation of the present discourse. I. The dearest of our relatives, and the most valuable of our friends, may possibly forsake us. II. When good men are abandoned by their dearest friends, they may find more in God, than they have lost in them. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. I. The dearest of our relatives, and the most valuable of our friends, may possibly forsake us. You see David speaks of it, as at least a supposable case, with regard to himself, that not only his followers, his companions and his brethren, but even his father and his mother might forsake him. All the intimacy of relation, all the endearment of affection, could not secure him from being deserted by them. And this may be our own case:-our friends may abandon us through their own unkindness,-or God may remove them by the stroke of his providence. 1. Our dearest friends may abandon us through their own unkindness. It is the remarkable saying of one, who had made many serious reflections on this head;*"If you put so much confidence in any friend, as not to consider, that it is possible he may become your enemy, you know man but little, and perhaps may be taught to know him better to your cost." Change of cir *Mr. Baxter. cumstances, contrariety of interest, our own mistakes, the misrepresentations of others, and sometimes mere caprice, and inconstancy of temper, render those indifferent, and perhaps averse to each other, who were once united in the bonds of the most endearing friendship: Nay, it is certain, that sometimes an immoderate and ungoverned fondness on both sides, may not only justly provoke God to disappoint our hopes from each other; but may prove, in its natural consequences, an occasion of mutual disgust, and perhaps of separation. For, when the mind labours under this disorder, it contracts a kind of sickly peevishness, which turns every trifling neglect into an offence, and every offence into a crime; so that men find the extremes of love and hatred more nearly connected, than they could once have believed. Sudden fear will drive away some friends when we are in danger; and a much meaner principle will lead others, who, in better days, have called themselves our friends, to abandon, and, perhaps to censure us, when, we are reduced to low circumstances, and so have the greatest need of their assistance. Such is the vanity of human friendship: And I will add, that neither, on the one hand, the sincerity of our affection, nor the worth of our character, nor the urgency of our affairs; nor, on the other hand, the former appearance of goodness in them, nor the highest obligations of gratitude; nor yet the nearest ties of blood or alliance, can secure us from disappointment in this tender article. David and Job, under the Old Testament, and Paul, and even his blessed Master, under the New, though all such excellent persons, were forsaken, and in several respects injured, by their friends; nay, I may say as to most of them, by pious friends too. Such treatment therefore may we meet with from ours, even from those to whom we are related in the bonds of nature as well as affection.-What union can be more strict and endearing, than that of marriage? Yet you know, Job complains while he was in circumstances which might have drawn tears from the eyes of a stranger, that his wife seemed to have forgot, not only the tenderness of her sex, and the intimacy of her relation, but even all sense of common humanity towards him: My breath, says he, is strange to my wife, though I intreated her for the children's sake of mine own body*.-From whom could we expect greater tenderness, than from parents to their children, especially from mothers to their infant offspring? Yet God expressly declares, what has indeed been seen in some amazing * Job xix. 17. selves all that tenderness and care from him, which David, and other saints of old, expected and found. He hath said to every one of us, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee*; and for our peculiar support under the loss of the dearest and most useful relatives, he has more particularly added, A Father of the fatherless, and a Judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation+. When our friends are dead, we are generally more sensible of their value, than we were before: But let the tenderest heart, under the immediate impression of this severe calamity, set itself to paint the character of a departed friend in all its most amiable colours; let it reckon up all the advantages, which fondness could have taught it to hope for; and I will answer for it, that all this, and a great deal more, is to be found in God. Let the dejected orphan, that is even now weeping over the dust of a parent, yea, of both its parents, say, what these parents, in the greatest supposable advantages of cha racter and circumstance, could have done for its support, and its consolation; and the complaints of the most pathetic sorrow shall suggest thoughts, which may serve in a great measure, to answer themselves, and to engage the mind joyfully to acquiesce in the divine care, though deserted by the best of parents, or any other friends, however hopeful or useful. "Alas," will a dutiful and affectionate child be ready to say, in such a circumstance, " do you ask, what my parents were? They were my dearest, my kindest, my most valuable friends-Their counsels guided me ;-their care protected me ;-their daily converse was the joy of my life ;—their tender condolance revived me under my sorrows;-their liberal bounty supplied my necessities. Is it to be inquired, what they were? Say rather, what were they not? And now they are gone, where must I seek such friends? And how justly may I say, that my dearest comforts and hopes lie buried with their precious remains." Let us more particularly survey each of these thoughts, and consider with how much greater advantage each of these particulars is to be found in the paternal care and favour of God. 1. Could your parents have advised you in difficulties and perplexities? God is much more able to do it, You will perhaps say, "Our poor giddy unpractised minds have been hurried with a variety of schemes and projects, and we have soon found ourselves bewildered and lost; but then it has been the greatest pleasure to us to apply to our parents, from whose more advanced age, and riper experience, we might well hope for considerable assistance. We were sure they would not upbraid our ignorance, or despise us for our weakness; but would give us their best advice, with endearing tenderness, and a cordial concern for our welfare." I allow, my friends, that if they were wise and good, which we now suppose, they were valuable counsellors indeed; and that it was your duty, and your happiness, to use them as such while living, and as such to lament them, now they are here no more. Yet, were they ever so prudent, you must still acknowledge they were fallible creatures. They could only form probable conjectures concerning the future consequences of things; and as those conjectures were always precarious, so, no doubt, they were sometimes erroneous; and you were, perhaps, in some instances, misled by their mistaken apprehensions: But the only wise God knows the end from the beginning; his views of the most distant futurities are not conjectural, but certain; and his wisdom is far more superior to that of the most sagacious and experienced mortal, than the wisdom of such a mortal can be superior to that of an infant. It is He that teaches man knowledge*, in whatever degree he possesses it. He instructed our parents, that they might instruct us; and he has expressly promised his direction to all those that humbly seck it. The meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way. You may therefore, according to his own instruction and command, cry unto him, My father, thou art the guide of my youth; and you will find him such a guide, as can give Wisdom to the simple, and to the young man knowledge and discretions. 2. Could your earthly parents have protected you from injuries? God is much more able to do it. Nature has implanted even in irrational animals such a regard to the safety of their offspring, that many of the most weak and timorous of them become strangely courageous in their defence. The little bird, that will at other times fly from every noise and every motion, will hover over her young, when they are assaulted with danger; and, rather than she will forsake them will share in their ruin. It is easy to perceive the spirit of parents Psal. xciv. 10. † Psal. xxv. 9. Jer, iii. 4. § Prov. i. 4. |