enough: but why should you fear? Do you suppose, that when God laid help for you upon his dear Son, he was not aware how much would be necessary for your salvation? or, has he been disappointed in his Son, finding him, after all, unequal to the task assigned him? Be ashamed of your unbelieving fears. Come not to Christ, saying, "Lord, if thou canst, or if thou wilt," but cast your burthen wholly upon him, and see whether he be not able and willing to sustain you. He himself says to you, "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy helpm." This is your warrant to trust in him. "Trust in him therefore with all your heart, and he will bring to pass" whatsoever he sees to be needful for you. "Cast all your care upon him;" and you "shall be saved in him with an everlasting salvation."] m Hos. xiii. 9. DCL. GOD'S COVENANT ENGAGEMENTS WITH CHRIST AND US. Ps. lxxxix. 28-35. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David. It was IN seasons of deep affliction, when, through unbelief, we are ready to think that God has forsaken and forgotten us, it is well to look back to God's covenant engagements, whereon, as on a rock, we may stand firm amidst the tempest that surrounds us. under such circumstances (probably about the time of the Babylonish captivity) that this psalm was penned. In it the stability of God's covenant is fully declared. The fears and apprehensions of his people, as arising from his apparent violation of it, are next delineated: and it concludes with fervent adorations of God, who, notwithstanding all the dictates of unbelief, is worthy to be blessed for evermore. For the just use, as well as understanding, of the passage before us, we shall, I. Explain it― [There can be no doubt but that the words, in their literal meaning, refer to the covenant which God made with David respecting the continuance of his posterity on his throne"; and which seemed to be violated, now that both king and people were carried captive to Babylon; but which, in fact, should be accomplished in all its parts; because whatever they might endure for a season, the sceptre should not depart from Judah till Shiloh should come. But there is doubtless a reference to Christ, who is often called David. Some of the words originally addressed to David, are expressly declared to refer to Christ chiefly, yea exclusively. They must be understood therefore as containing God's covenant with Christ. In them we see, first, God's assurances respecting Christ himself, that notwithstanding all the troubles he should experience, he should be raised from the dead, and have all the kingdoms of the earth for his possession. Next, Christ is assured respecting his people, who are his seed', that though through infirmity and temptation they may fall into sin, the Father will not utterly abandon them, or finally withdraw his love from them. He will not indeed leave them to continue in sin (for that would be incompatible with their salvation") but he will chastise them, till they repent and turn from all their transgressions, and thus will he secure them to Christ as his inheritance1. The grounds of these assurances are, lastly, specified. These are God's covenant, and his oath. Having entered into covenant with his Son, he cannot disannul it. Yet, if he were to give up to final destruction any who were Christ's spiritual seed, this covenant would be broken; seeing that some who were given to Christ would perish, and Christ, as far as relates to them, would have died in vain. Moreover, in this, the oath, which (for our consolation) he sware to his Son, would be violated: but, having sworn by his holiness, which is the glory of all his perfections, he never can, nor ever will recede. On these grounds therefore the glory of Christ, and the salvation of his people are irrevocably secured.] Lest however this consolatory passage should be abused, let us, a 2 Sam. vii. 12—17. C b Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24. Hos. iii. 5. Compare 2 Sam. vii. 14. with Heb. i. 5. d Compare Isai. lv. 3. with Acts xiii. 34. e Luke i. 32, 33. Rev. xi. 15. f Isai. liii. 10. Ps. xxii. 30. 1 Pet. i. 23. Isai. liv. 7-10. Jer. xxxii. 40. i John xvii. 11. 1 Pet. i. 5—7. h Heb. xii. 14. II. Improve it It evidently TEACHES us, 1. To cleave unto Christ with full purpose of heart [The covenant, whether made with David or with Abraham, was confirmed before of God in Christk. Every blessing of the covenant was made over to him as our head and representative, and must be received from him by faith'. To him therefore must we look for pardon, stability, and everlasting salvation. As to him the promises were made, so in him alone are they yea, and Amen". Let it then be our great care to be found in him°; and then we may rest assured that nothing shall ever separate us from him".] 2. To endure with patience and thankfulness whatever afflictions God may lay upon us [Part of God's covenant is, to "correct us in measure"." And, however afflicted any may be, have they any cause to say, that they are corrected beyond measure? Can a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins"? Surely it is far better to be chastened here, than to be condemned with the world hereafter. We may all see reason enough for chastisement, if we will but mark our daily and hourly transgressions. Let us therefore not so much as desire God to spare us, provided he see that we need correction for the welfare of our souls; but rather let us kiss the rod, and improve it", and adore the hand that uses it for our good.] 3. To dread sin as the greatest of all evils— [Though at first sight this passage may seem to weaken our dread of sin, yet, in reality, it is calculated to impress us with a holy fear of offending God. The covenant made with Christ does indeed secure the salvation of his people: but does it provide them impunity in sin? No-on the contrary, it engages God to punish sin, yea, to punish it effectually; and never to leave his people under its dominion. Is there then room to say, I shall be saved, though I commit sin? No: for either God will "drive it out with the rod of correction," or leave it as an indisputable mark that we never belonged to him at all". Let us never then make Christ a minister of sina; but learn from the very grace that saves us, to glorify him by a holy conversation.] k Gal. iii. 17. 1 Col. i. 19. John i. 16. m Gal. iii. 16. • Phil. iii. 9. u Isai. xxvii. 9. P Rom. viii. 38, 39. s 1 Cor. xi. 32. x Heb. xii. 10. DCLI. GOD'S ANGER A REASON FOR TURNING TO HIM. Ps. xc. 11, 12. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. THIS psalm is entitled, "A prayer of Moses the man of God." It seems to have been written by Moses on account of the judgment denounced against the whole nation of Israel, that they should die in the wilderness. It had been already executed to a great extent, God having consumed multitudes of them in his anger: and the period of man's life was then reduced to its present standard of seventy or eighty years. From this awful demonstration of God's displeasure, he is led to this reflection: "Who knoweth the power of thine anger?" And then he prays, that the whole nation might be induced by the shortness and uncertainty of their lives to seek without delay the favour of their offended God: "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." In accordance with our text let us also contemplate, I. The inconceivable weight of God's anger— Of course, in speaking of God's anger we must divest it of all those tumultuous feelings, which agitate the minds of men; and conceive of it as manifested only in his dispensations towards the objects of his displeasure. Let us contemplate it then, 1. As it appears in this world [The whole world bears the evidence of being under the displeasure of an angry God. The creation itself, even the animal and vegetable, as well as the rational parts of it, is greatly changed since it came out of its Creator's hands. A curse has been inflicted on it all, on account of sin. Storms, and tempests, and earthquakes, and pestilences, and diseases of every kind, and death with its antecedent pains and its attendant horrors, are all the sad fruits of sin, and the effects of God's anger on account of sin. Death has obtained an universal a ver. 3. b ver. 5-7. с ver. 10. empire, and "reigns even over those who have never sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression," as well as over the actual transgressors of God's law. But the anger of God is yet more strikingly visible, in those particular judgments which God has executed upon men from time to time. Behold the plagues in Egypt, the destruction of the Egyptian first-born, and of Pharaoh and all his host in the Red Sea! behold the awful judgments inflicted on Korah,. Dathan, and Abiram, and on the myriads, who, by their lewdness, their unbelief, and their murmurings, drew down the wrath of God upon them! behold fire and brimstone rained. down from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities of the plain! yea, and the whole world, with every living creature except those contained in the ark, swept away by one universal deluge! these serve as awful proofs of God's indignation against sin, and his determination to punish it according to its deserts.. There are other proofs, less visible indeed, but not less real, of God's anger, which may be found in the horrors of a guilty conscience, or the distresses of a soul that is under the hidings of his face. Hear what was Job's experience under a sense of God's displeasure: "The arrows of the Almighty are within. me; the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me." To the same effect the Psalmist also speaks, when describing the anguish of his own mind: "Thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day. I am feeble and sore broken; I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart." The unhappy end of Judas shews how insupportable is a sense of God's wrath, when the consolations of hope are altogether withdrawn. But, after all, there is nothing that will give us such an idea of God's anger, as a view of the Lord Jesus Christ when "Jehovah's sword awoke against him" to inflict the penalty that was due to sin. Behold that immaculate Lamb of God sweating great drops of blood from every pore of his body, through the inconceivable agonies of his soul! Hear him, in the depths of dereliction, crying, "My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" and see him, finally, giving up the ghost, and dying under the load of his people's sins! Could we at all appreciate this mystery, we should indeed say, "Who knoweth the power of thine anger?" But let us contemplate it,] 2. As it appears in the world to come d 1 Cor. x. 8-10. e Job vi. 4. Ps. xxxviii. 2, 3, 6, 8. |